


The Diabolical Comedy

by Seasay



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Body Horror, Canon Non-Binary Character, Nonbinary Character, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2020-05-20 23:12:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 35,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19386403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seasay/pseuds/Seasay
Summary: Six months has passed since the apocalypse that they’d all worked so very hard for millennia to happen didn’t, and neither Hell nor Heaven are dealing with the aftermath with any kind of proficiency. Much to the two administrators of their respective offices best efforts both demons and angels were starting to disappear. And now unfortunately it looks like two highly powerful members of both offices have gone missing, so Beelzebub and Gabriel have no one to look to for help but each other. And while they by all intents and purpose shouldn’t work well together at all, they somehow do, and perhaps long forgotten feelings start to be uncovered in the process as the two try their best at putting their own workplaces back into order





	1. Prologue: Cirice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this book has been one of my favorites for like nearly ten years now, and i honestly didnt expect that much from the tv-series, and i honestly just love it so goddamn much. i especially love all the new characters we have gotten, and i really didn't expect to suddenly gain a new favorite pairing but that also somehow happened. so i don't know i have had this sitting in my head for like a week and i had such an itch to start writing it (even tho i have a lot of other things to finish) but anyhow heres the prolog of this thing, where we meet angel beelz kinda briefly.  
> the titel of the fic is a not that clever play on the poem the Divine Comedy which is about hell  
> chapter title is from the song [Cirice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOrXKiSy8ZY) by Ghost (which i just mainly wanted to reference because it fits the mood of the prolog very well anyway)  
> i will apologize beforehand for all my spelling and grammatical errors, i'm dyslexic and english is not my first language, and im writing this all by myself so,

**Before time was invented, and the earth did not yet exist.**

An angel was laying on their stomach in paradise, they were observing a small caterpillar climbing over a leaf. Bugs such as caterpillars did not truly exist yet but god had taken an interest in practicing before the real main event of creating the earth and all living things on it. As such paradise was home to many animals of differing sizes, none of them truly alive, all immortal and eternal. But for all intents and purpose they behaved just as animals all would behave once they were all alive, if one did not already know that they were all immortal when looking at them you couldn’t really tell the difference between an eternal frog and your general run of the mill frog that would exist on earth

The angel in question, one of The cherubim to be precise, was attentively observing the small bug, they had done so for what must have been hours [1]. their four large light blue wings bent close to their body, their long and dark hair arranged in angelical curls lay lose from where it was usually tied back, spilling to the ground beside them. they were also not caring much about the dust from the ground that was dirtying their long white gauze robes, and most preposterous of all, they had completely disregarded their golden harp, otherwise so ever present in their arms, for said instrument had been a gift from the almighty herself at one point. It was Laying forgotten for the moment on the ground beside them.

The small cherub was lost to their own thoughts all until the sound of a voice speaking up behind them brought them out of their head.

“Observing the small wonders are we little one?” The voice was intimidating and commanded attention in its very tone, it caused the cherub to scramble to their feet, grabbing a hold of their harp and as best they could brush the earth of their robes. They were going to open their own mouth to answer the being addressing them but they were caught in their tracks as they saw who it was.

If the voice of the Morningstar commanded attention his visage was a blinding light one couldn’t for the life of them look away from.  
“I apologize, I did not mean to frighten you little one” the Morningstar continued.

“No..no it’s fine” the cherub answered “I was just not expecting anyone to be here” they said, their eyes seeking the ground instead of beholding the high Archangel in all his glory.

“Why is that?” The Morningstar asked them, he sounded genuinely curious.  
“I have never seen anyone come here before” the cherub said, they spoke the truth, the only beings they had witnessed amongst these wooded parts of paradise were the animals.

“No one besides you” The Morningstar said, he sounded almost amused, they guessed, not that they knew much about the Archangels mannerisms, this was the first time they had ever spoke. “Why is it that you stare at these” he reached down and plucked the caterpillar of its leaf, he brought it up before his bright golden eyes and observed it for a moment “lesser beings?” He finished his question.

His words and actions made the cherub look up from the ground.  
“Well I…” they felt his golden gaze turn towards them for a moment as he closed his hand around the small creature. Instantly they felt their nerves twist in their stomach, “I find them fascinating sir” they finished. He raised an eyebrow at that, he gestured a bit to make them elaborate “it’s just...the almighty has a plan for everyone and everything right? Everything and everyone has a purpose” they clutched their harp close to their chest “us for instance, we are created to serve her, so I just find it interesting to imagine what purpose the ones so small that they seem insignificant might have” they brushed a strand of their dark curly hair behind one of their ears as they spoke. They wondered if the Morningstar might find their musings odd, they were sure that should the rest of their choir hear about it, that they would find it strange and pointless to think of such matters. Of the hypothetical destiny of bugs of all things.

“Hmm” The Morningstar simply hummed in response “it is an interesting thought” he spoke as he observed his fist where he held the bug still “but if I’m honest, I’m not truly sure if she’s put that much thought into every single detail” he said “I think they might just be” he opened his fist letting the now colorfully and winged creature take flight away from him “set dressing” he finished and watched the creature that had moments before been a caterpillar and now was something different fly away.

After that the Morningstar put his hands behind his back and turned around to more thoroughly observed the cherub.  
“Your name is Bellalris is it not?” The Morningstar asked. The cherub simply nodded, for that was indeed their name.  
“Was there something you wanted from me sir?” They asked back.

“No, there’s nothing that I want from you little one, I simply wanted to see the angel in question that fascinates him so” he said as he began to circle them, still watching them intently. Bellalris felt their nerves flare up again, being observed like this was...uncomfortable to say the least.

“I’m sorry I don’t think I quite understand” they said, there was a small part of them that had an inclination to what he was referring to but they pushed it away, they should not assume such things.

“He speaks highly of you, very often in fact, tells us, anyone of us that he can get a hold of, all about how wonderfully you sing, the clearest voice in all of the host he says” the Morningstar spoke as he came to a stop in front of them. he reached a hand forward and tilted their chin up, for a moment he let his fingers stray over a few of the golden freckles that married their face. “He also speaks of how very beautiful you are, how he can barely keep his eyes off you” The Morningstar continue with a light chuckle “you know the way he can go on I’m sure Michael is going to hit him upon the head the next time he tries to speak of you”

Bellalris felt their cheeks turn red at the words the Morningstar spoke but still they didn’t want to let themself hope to much.  
“I’m not sure I know of who you speak” they were interrupted then by him.  
“Of course you do, or is there another Archangel that’s going around showering you with praise that I don’t know about” he said, a knowing smile spreading across his face.

“Sir Gabriel flatters me with such commendations, I’m sure I’m nothing to special” their eyes fell to the ground again, their cheeks wear heating up even more as they thought of him. The Morningstar was correct, his brother the Archangel Gabriel did often praise them for their singing, but even so the thought of him speaking about them to his peers, to think that he called them beautiful in front of even the Morningstar wasn’t something they’d ever dare to consider.

“He’s not one to be that impressed often, it’s a rare thing to see someone catch his attention as thoroughly as you have” the Morningstar smiled “it is very intriguing for me I will say, while dear Michael seems to be worn thin with her patience for his ramblings, I felt very inclined to meet the angel in question”

His words did spark something inside Bellalris, Gabriel had on many a occasion sought them out to give them praise for their voice, sometimes even embarrassingly enough in front of the rest of their choir. The others did not like it to see only one of them receive such gratifying compliments especially from someone as high up as he was. Gabriel never seemed to take notice that the others were hurt that he only praised one of them as he did, and he didn’t consider that they might look at the object of his praise with disdain once he was gone. But even so, even with how lonely it had inadvertently made them, and how flustered they always felt at his compliments, they didn’t want him to ever stop doing it.

“I must say” the Morningstar continued, still observing them, “I believe his descriptions of you were correct”

“I...I beg your pardon?” This had not been what they had expected the highest of Archangels to say, then again they were surprised he had even taken and interest, with Gabriel it was at least a bit more understandable. He had always favored music, after all he was the hornblower, the celestial harmonies spoke to him in a way. But from what was known of the other Archangels they had never even considered… Bellalris felt they truly had no clue how to respond to this.

“You are very beautiful, just as he says” the Morningstar spoke. “And while I have not heard you sing, I can tell just by the sound of your voice that he was not exaggerating”

“He is very kind to say such things” they mumbled to themself mostly.  
“But there is still one thing I wonder” The Morningstar said. “How come someone so gifted by the grace of our creator, someone so full of beauty and talent, how come they hide themself away underneath these trees to weep in solitude?” As he asks the question Bellalris felt their veins run cold. The Morningstar’s bright golden eyes was barring into them, they felt that this was perhaps the true question he had come here to ask them.

“You must be mistaken sir, i...I don’t know of what it is you speak” they said, their own voice shaking as they tried with all their being to lie [2]. By the look on the Morningstar’s face he was not convinced for a second.  
“You can not deceive me little one, I have both seen and heard you, I know you harbor sorrow within your heart” his voice was cutting, commanding an answer to his question by its mare pitch. The share understated force of it was enough to make their eyes water.

“I...I” they stammered, tears slowly beginning to fall. “I beg of you, you mustn’t tell anyone” they pleaded, if he knew...if anyone knew, they’d all think them deviant, or mad perhaps.

”Shush now” The Morningstar hushed at them, putting a comforting hand at their shoulders. “Why do you hide? Why are you so afraid little one?” He asked

“Because it’s wrong, I should not…” their words fell away into a small sob as their tears began to intensify. “I shouldn’t feel this way, i shouldn’t have these thoughts I shouldn’t have this…” they felt their legs grow weak and they sank down to their knees, the Morningstar went with them, sitting down beside them. “This yearning in my heart” they finished as more of their sobbing came over them. The high Archangel’s presence seemed to comfort at least a little, his bright golden light warming them as he lay an arm over their shoulders.

It all felt to much for them, these thoughts and emotions were always something they pushed out of sight. Willing them with all their power to stay hidden, but as much as they wanted it, they couldn’t simply miracle them away. At times it would all be too much and then they would flee to these parts, to a dark corner of the forest within paradise. And there they would cry all alone, where only the animals could hear them.

A few moments passed as they continued to sob, the Morningstar simply waited but they knew by the look in his eyes that he would still demand an answer, and they did know that they couldn’t lie to him.

“An angel is supposed to only love god, should they not?” They spoke once their weeping calmed down enough for them to form words again. “We are created for servitude, for worship, we are not meant to feel that love for anyone or anything else” they continued on.

“But you do” the Morningstar said matter of fact. They only nodded in response. “Tell me then, for whom is it your heart yearns little one?” The Morningstar asked.

“You know of him, whenever he praises me I feel such joy, more joy then I have ever felt before” they could almost see Gabriel’s bright smile before them as they spoke of it, they always felt so shy, so flustered, having to look upwards to meet the tall Archangel’s violet eyes. “I feel myself wishing that he would only ever praise me, that he would never look or care for anyone else, I’m afraid that someone will grow more skilled than me, so I find myself practicing, until my voice feels like it will break and my fingers almost bleed” they looked at their harp resting in their lap, they thought on the numerous times they’d played it until pain would overtake them, all to make sure the music they created was still pristine, still perfect and exceptional, still worthy of his praise. “And at times I find myself wishing I could sing only for him” that they knew to be wrong, to sing was to grace with glory, to worship in some ways, as they were one of the choir their music should only exist for the almighty alone. But still they couldn’t stop themself from imagining the two of them alone together. For him to smile only for them, and applaud them once they were done, for him to lay his hands upon them and hear him say that they were special, that he would never want anyone else.

“You poor thing” The Morningstar spoke, and there was honest pity in his eyes. “So cruel of our creator to make you this way and punish you for it” he sighed a bit. They felt his finger once again grace their cheek brushing their tears away. “No wonder you cry” they then felt the Morningstar embrace them.

They were caught by surprise, he was warm, his arms felt strong around them. They didn’t really understand why he would take this pity on them. They were just a cherub, one of the lower ranks even, just one of the choir.  
“It must pain you so” he spoke, he was so close that his words were right next to their ear, if anything it made his voice feel even more commanding “to know that if Gabriel would be aware of how you felt that he would be repulsed by you” he said.

They almost felt like their heart broke in that moment. Of course they had often been scared that he should hate them if he knew the truth, the thought so often crossed their mind. But at least some stubborn part that hadn’t given in completely to reality, that small stubborn part still had hope that his attention and praise could possibly mean more. But to hear it from someone else, from the Morningstar of all people, that small hope was quickly snuffed out. They felt despair in their gut at the harsh truth.  
“You..you really think he would hate me?” They asked between sobs.

“Oh little one, Gabriel is simple, he would not understand you, he wouldn’t know to treasure the reverence you hold for him. All he knows, and all he cares about is to serve, to follow orders. Anything that isn’t in accordance of the will of the almighty is beyond his limited scope” the Morningstar said.

Bellalris felt the urge to defend Gabriel from the accusations of his brother. He was not simple, he was no fool he just...he just didn’t always see everything so clearly, like when he didn’t know how his praise had alienated them from the rest of their choir. But he didn’t mean to, he didn’t...he didn’t understand.

“I’m sorry” they whispered against the Morningstar’s shoulder, and they truly were, they were so sorry for being this way.

“Don’t be” He said and pushed away from them, his hands still on both their shoulders. “It is not your fault, it is her fault, she’s the one who demands us to only ever worship her. She is the one being unfair. If she was truly kind she wouldn’t even give you the capacity to feel like this for him. But she has, and for no other reason then to cause you pain” his words sounded so bitter. His golden eyes seemed to shine dark for a moment. But the moment passed and he was back to his normal golden shine again.

“Little one, know that you have an ally in me, should you ever fear or doubt again, speak with me. I promise you, I will never judge you” he gave their shoulder a light squeeze.

  
“Thank you sir” Bellalris answered, their voice now sounding clearer as they had calmed their weeping down properly.  
“There is no need to thank me, I simply want you to be able to look to me as a friend” The smile Lucifer gave them could be by some described as devilish, but not at that point of existence, neither devils or demons existed yet after all so what could be described as typical for them was not yet known. “But I would hope that you do not mention to Gabriel that we have spoken here today” he said still with that peculiar smile on his lips.

“Why not sir?” They asked.  
“Oh he’d get dreadful jealous, he’d be thinking that I’m trying to steal his favorite away from him” Lucifer said with a small laugh at the end. He continued to smile in the way that would one day become signature to the devil. And from that moment Bellalris who’s themself would one day become one of the very first demons to exist, found themself, for better or for worse, trusting the Archangel before them.

_  
[1] such things were difficult to determine though as time had yet to truly exist.  
[2] this was believe it or not a difficult thing to do, lying is not something that comes easy to angels, at least not someone of such a low standing such as Bellalris

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Satan is an asshole, if it wasn't completely obvious, anyhow i find it funny that i'm using mostly actual pre existing names for all the demons that are going to be included in this story, but with names for angels im just like "no i gotta come up with fake names here" also i really kinda wanted to make Beelz a very low tier angel but it is specified they were a cherub, so well it's said that the cherubim can have a multitude of purposes so it doesnt say they cant have been a singer, which i also really wanted to do because you know the notion that they were created to have a beautiful voice only to have their voice turn into what it became once they became a demon is the kinda ironic shit i live for.  
> and one last thing Beelzebub is often said to be the ruler of false idols and heretical worship, and here im sitting to myself wondering, how can i make this shippy, and next chapter is out, right now, im posting both of them at the same time


	2. In The Presence Of Various Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so hers the technical first chapter of the story, it was originally going to be longer, but it got a bit too much so it got cut off and here seemed good enough, i hope you will enjoy it for what its worth
> 
> chapter title comes from the song [Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkMn_n5KzCc) By David Bowie (i like to refrence music way to much sorry)
> 
> i'm also sorry for the various spelling and grammatical errors that i in no doubt have missed, having dyslexia makes writing a difficult hobby to have unfortunately

Beelzebub found themself awakened by the feeling of water hitting the back of their neck. As they opened their eyes all they could see was the fabric of the couch they had up until recently been sleeping on. They turned their head over and stared pointedly towards the ceiling, right at the pipe that was currently leaking.

They gave the pipe a look which spoke very clearly about just how much power they held over the very fabric of reality pertaining to this office. The pipe pointedly rusted up enough to stop the leaking in abstract fear. Sure they could just as easily have used their powers to will the leak away but it wasn’t as satisfying as frightening the plumbing into obedience. Hell was a strange place, it’s long filthy halls was shaped by the beings that walked it after all.

Beelzebub sat up properly on their knees, and stretched their arms over their head. They had been laying face down on the couch as they slept. Something that was very noticeable by the new stains having appeared in the fabric from where some of their scabs had broken. Not that the couch in question wasn’t more stain then fabric by this point, it, just as all of hell, had never been cleaned since it was first materialized in the corner of Beelzebub’s office. They scratched a little at a newly forming sore at their neck, they always itched so much, never truly comfortable in their own skin. They hissed a bit as the wound opened and they felt fluid at their fingers. They felt something else an intense moment where their skin felt like it was being singed by a hot poker around the wound at their neck. It wasn’t anything strange though, just a fly crawling out from under their skin. The moment passed and the small bug began crawling over their neck. They waved it away to join the others buzzing around their head instead.

Beelzebub cast a glance towards the clock that stood on an filthy [1]side table, they cursed under their breath. Four hours they’d been out, they had only intended to lay down for a minute or two. But they must have fallen asleep, which they did not have time for, there was work that had to be done. They stood up and made their way towards their desk. They picked up their jacket of their chair and draped it back over their shoulders.

The paperwork that was stacked on Beelzebub’s desk was impressively high at that point. Not that there wasn’t a time where the paperwork didn’t seem eternal and never ending but it had been more so in the last months.

Six months had passed by now since the failed endeavor that had been the intended apocalypse. Six months of their work being even more of a figurative Hell than usual, which was an impressive feat as it was also a literally hell.

Beelzebub took a moment to massage their temples. The room was quiet besides the buzzing, the always infernal and eternal buzzing, they usually kept a rusty fan spinning in one corner of their office in order to not be left alone with the constant sound. Even if they willed the flies away, which they could with enough concentration [2], they would still hear the buzzing from within. That was different though, that buzzing was not the sound of small wings beating faster than a human eye could process, no that buzzing simply came from the millions upon millions of tiny pieces that made up their shredded celestial being clashing and scraping against one another. It was an existential reminder that they never were in the mood to think about.

They willed the rusty fan in the corner to start spinning again and began to look over the paperwork they had been working on before their accidentally extended nap. This should have all been over by now, they thought as they looked over the stained papers that needed their signature. for so long had they gone with the assumption that at this point in time there would only be two outcomes for them. Either the war had been won, they as well as their peers and the master would all sit on the high thrones of what once had been heaven, gazing down on what little there was left of the earth. Or they would be dead, which at this point felt preferable to their current situation.

They could handle going back to work as it had been for 6000 years. Even with the now new uncertainty of it ever ending, they could do that without much problem, they were good at their job after all. It was just all the previous unconsidered outcomes of a failed apocalypse that was making them wish for the sweet release of oblivion.

Their people for better or for worse had been disappearing. Many simply all of a sudden failing to report and were probably hiding themselves away somewhere on earth. Well if they wanted to hide and escape there was no other place for them after all. The end of times had for many demons been a thought keeping them going. Sure their existence was miserable in all the definitions of the word, they were all damnd and suffering but it wouldn’t last forever. One day it would end one way or another, so to keep trucking along until that happened couldn’t be to difficult. But the end of times didn’t come, and no one had any clue if there would even be a next attempt much less when it would be.

So many had succumb to despair, trying in vain to run away from the horrid existence they were all doomed to live. Beelzebub was not one of them, they could always work, hell would not run itself and they were keenly aware that without them the whole operation was in danger of collapsing in on itself. But as much as it was the existential dread of the unsertant eternity of their existence that had people running, it wasn’t unfortunately the only reason demons were beginning to go missing. There was also the incident that by this time was only referred to as ‘THE TRIAL’.

‘THE TRIAL’ is it was referred to in capital letters every time. Had done the opposite of what it had originally intended, what had been expected to happen was that hell would be given its scapegoat. They would take the demon in question whom had put a stop to their plans, plans that had been thousands of years in the making, cursing them all to continue their wretched existence, as well as permanently killing one of their own to save his own hide. and punish said demon in the worst way they could find. Instead it had turned out that whatever power that had somehow been protecting Crowley [3] had continued to do so even after his part in the Armageddon that wasn’t had come to an end.

As much as they had tried to keep a lid on what had happened, hell will always gossip, speculate and be to damn curious[4]. One theory, a theory that Beelzebub hated, was that whatever Crowley had done on earth, it had changed him. Made him somehow more angelic then he was before[5]. As much as it pained them to think about it, it couldn’t be denied that some people were going to earth in some vain attempt to replicate his successes. To Beelzebub it all seemed idiotic, it was obvious that there was something that held its hand over not only Crowley but also over his little prissy angel friend, but the rest of hell did of course not know that the The angel Crowley had been committing treason with had also been miraculously immune to the one thing that could kill all angels.

Beelzebub silently wished as much pain and misery upon Crowley as they themself were feeling. There would be consequences, there was always consequences, but lucky little Crowley didn’t have to suffer through a second of it.

Beelzebub was broken out of their thoughts by a knock on their office door.  
“You May enter” they said, not taking their eyes of their paperwork. The door opened and their secretary Stolas entered the room. He looked about it with his too large owl like eyes for a moment before they landed on them sitting behind their desk.  
“You are awake my lord” he stated and began to walk further into the office on his to long legs. There were feathers still stuck on his lapels and a few still in his hair they noted as he came up closer.

“You could have woken me up, I had no intention to rest for so long” they said as their attention was drawn back to their paperwork.

“Hoo~, well yes” the demon sounded out his first sound of the sentence in a way that was very reminiscent of the owl his being was tied to “it was just, You seemed very tired, I thought you might be able to be more efficient if you got some proper rest”

They glanced back up to the tall demon before them, he looked nervous, shifting his weight from leg to leg, and looking everywhere then at them.

“Who’s mizzzing now?” They asked, it was obviously someone important that had turned their coat tails and run this time if sharing the news of it made Stolas so nervous.

“Well, yes my lord someone is missing but..”  
“But what? Out with it” they command, they had no tolerance for this squabbling that the lower demon was displaying.

“The...the news will upset you my lord” he said, his grip on the clipboard in his clawed hands grew stronger, he seemed truly afraid.  
“There is No news that you could give me at thiz point that izzn’t going to upzzet me, now tell me who is gone!” Beelzebub fixed their secretary with a stare that told much about how little patience they had for any of this.

“It’s..” Stolas stopped to take a deep breath “it’s Asmodeus my lord, he’s gone”

Beelzebub, with a very resounding thud, banged their head against their desk.  
“Call the otherzzz” the said through gritted teeth. Their buzzing tick to their speech increasing substantially by their share frustration.  
“What others my lord”  
“The fucking counzzzil! The rezzt of the prinzezz! Call thzzem!” They yelled as they whipped their head back up to stare the lesser demon down with red burning eyes.

“Even...even our master?” Stolas said while trying his best at hiding most of his face behind his clipboard.

“Give him the invitation at leazzt, he can fucking show up if he can get himzzelf out of hiz little szzelf pity hole for a szzecond, and underzztand that we szztill need to fucking function!” They continued yelling as they took to their feet and stormed out of their office. This was bad, this was truly the worst shit that could have happened.

* * *

[1] to describe something as filthy in hell is somewhat redundant, everything is filthy after all, from the ground to the walls and ceiling above them and everything in between, what would be truly noteworthy would be something that wasn’t filthy, but that usually meant whatever it was didn’t belong in hell  
[2] the flies in question were after all not real flies like those that exist on earth. They were a parts of Beelzebub that simply took the shape of a swarm of flies  
[3] protecting him from things such as burning to death while driving a car through a wall of fire or from the wrath of Satan. At least that’s what hell theorised, none of them really had the imagination to come up with anything close to the truth so they all simply assumed he was protected by something.  
[4] such things will naturally occur once you put enough people into one crammed inclosed space, and hell was full to the brim with people that had nothing better to do then speak of things that they shouldn’t  
[5] that would be any amount of anglicism, as Crowley possessed non, because demons were the anthisasis to all things angelic.  
~

It wasn’t to often that all of the seven princes of hell gathered in one room.[1] This was not one of those occasions either as the topic of discussion was of that one of them was missing. There was also the absence of the the technical sixth member of the council.

He had two chairs in here and he can’t even show up for one of them, Beelzebub thought to themself. Satan as it was had been seen very little since the failed armageddon. He wasn’t unwell all things considered, if it was even possible for him to be ‘unwell’ it was just that he was sulking, one quite insidious theory to what the almighty might have intended with the whole fake apocalypse business was that she wanted to make a hypocrite out of Satan. After all there would be no amount of small irony for the adversary to scold his son for rebelling of all things. While that fact was not confirmed it wasn’t in anyway out of the realm of possibility, god as they all knew to well, had a wicked and overly complex sense of humor. And even so the possibility that he’d been so thoroughly played with seemed to have the adversary sulking by himself in the deepest pit of hell that belonged only to him.

Beelzebub had at least hoped he could have got some perspective when the situation was so very dire as it was. But they could never be that lucky, instead they looked upon the other three pincses all gather around the slightly rotten conference table of the meeting room[2] Belphegor sat to their right in his wheelchair, drooling a little and staining the floor with his slime and mucus, the slightly nervous demon that had wheeled the prince in stood back to the wall trying their best to be inconspicuous. The ruler of sloth had once again fallen asleep the moment someone stopped talking, even though his glossy white eyes still lay open one could hear how his breathing had changed.

The Leviathan sat at the head of the table, her own clothes dripping with water and the tiny tentacles moving slowly at the sides of her neck and underneath her clothing, catching on the barnacles at the side of her cheeks, made it appear that she was always somewhat in motion, she seemed nervous as well for some reason, fiddling with her green seaweed like hair more then looking at her peers that sat around the table.

Last of them was Mammon to their right, with his sharp fox like face and suit covered in so many trinkets and gold that he made quite a lot of noise when ever he so much as moved a muscle. He was also the one to first start talking once Beelzebub had finished explaining the situation.

“I think you're overreacting” he said as he lay his feet on top of the rotten table. His chagrin was incredibly punchable Beelzebub thought, but a lot of that also had to do with the amount of credit their fellow prince took for doing less than the minimum of what was required of him. “It’s obvious he’s simply put of by the current situation and has gone out for a distraction or two” he continued while flashing a very patronizing smile to the rest of them. “You know how enamored Asmod can get with his humans, give it a week or two and he’ll be back”

Beelzebub felt their buzzing pick up speed the more Mammon elected to talk. By Satan he was insufferable, and lazy for that matter.  
“And if he doezzn’t?” They asked while crossing their arms and fixating their fellow prince with a glare that could reduce lesser demons to nothing more than goop.  
“Then the master will deal with him, no need for us to get involved” Mammon said, he seemed so very sure if himself. Really had they not been on equal footing in every way powerwise Beelzebub would have hit him without hesitation.

“W~WWhere is he?” Belphegor whizzed out, letting drool fall to the table as he spoke “w~wwhere is our master?” He said turning his head slowly around the room, to see if he might have somehow missed to register their masters presences.

“He’s not here yet” The Leviathan spoke, talking rapidly and still fidgeting with the knotted mess of her hair. She darteted her eyes across the room, to not so subtlety see if anyone was listening to her words. “And I agree with Mammon, just because he’s gone doesn’t mean we can just go assuming his up to no good”

“Exactly” Mammon said while point to the Leviathan, his manny trinkets janggeling as he moved his arm “he’s probably just taking a vacation”

“If he wazz taking a ‘vacatizzon’ I would have been informed about it” Beelzebub spoke through gritted teeth.

“Ooh because everything just has to go through you don’t it” the leviathan said, with an over exaggerated tone “the moment something isn’t gone by you and suddenly it’s a full blown crisis of some sort!” The leviathan threw her hands up in the air as she spoke “how should we trust that this isn’t just some kinda fabrication on your part, that your not just grabbing for more power again! You always do this! Hoarding all the responsibility’s for yourself and then go complain about it..”

“You are all very welcome to take your own responsibilities if any of you’d do your fucking jobs properly for onczze!” Beelzebub took to their feet as they yelled back at the leviathan. “And none of thizzz izz about work! It’zz about whether or not one of us izz planning to betray uzz again!”

“You don’t know that! You just wanna feel important! So you make up shit to make problems out of” the leviathan slammed her hands into the conference table hard enough for the wood to break.

“He is hiding himszzelf on earth! I’m not willing to take that chanczze to juszzt let him be in caszze he is planning szzzomething!” Beelzebub could hear how their verbal tick was increasing by the second the angrier they became but they couldn’t find it in them to care at the moment “if the maszzter izn’t going to do anything about the szzituation it haz to be up to uzz, we cannot take him down one on one! We need to work together but all you wanna do izz szzit on your azzzesz and continue to do nothing!” The flies around their head was beginning to pick up in speed, they were so frustrated, they were the only one here doing anything substantial, all three of them could barely be bothered to actually do their work in a competent manner, but they couldn’t even get their heads out of their asses and stop being lazy shits for a moment to understand that they could all be in danger.

The leviathan was scrapping lines into the table in front of her. The ruler of envy was just as pent up and angry as Beelzebub themself was, but just as the nautical prince was about to yell out her retort they were all surprised by the door opening. For just a moment they all consider the thought that the master had actually showed, but said hope was quickly snuffed out once the saw who it actually was.

“Sorry I’m late, just a bit of a hassle to get through the 7th ring, it’s flooded down their again” the demon Malphas said as he made his way towards one of the masters two chairs. He quite pointedly took his seat in the throne corresponding to pride and looked to the four higher ranking demons with his beady little bird eyes “did I miss anything important?” He asked as he clasped his hands in front of him.

Malphas, was not in fact a prince and did in the natural order of things not belong at the table they were all sitting around. The bird like demon was in fact the right hand man to Satan or at least such was the way he chose to describe himself. A more apt description of his duties were probably that of a personal assistant with just a tiny dash of a yes man to Satan, but such things didn’t at all sound truly demonic as a job description. So while Malphas was indeed a demon of a much higher standing than most he wasn’t as high up as the princes. He was also generally, by the princes especially, regarded as insufferable, which made the fact that he had as of late become the only person that Satan communicated with made not only Beelzebub’s work but the work of all the other princes just a tiny bit more annoying than they had to be.

There was of course also the fact that Satan had begun to send his lap dog in his own stead to speak for him. Which unfortunately for anyone around him made Malphas feel and act every so superior to all other demons around him [3]. Believing himself some sort of demonic equivalent to the bloody Metatorn of all things.

“Nothing much, Asmodeus is taking a sabbatical it seems and Beelzebub isn’t to fond of it” Mammon said nonchalantly.  
“That’s all? Hmm the way the summons were worded I thought it was something urgent” Malphas said in response and looked at Beelzebub where they still stood at the other end of the table, flies still buzzing in an angry cloud around their head.

“It is urgent, I fear that Azzm… that he might be up to something” they did their best to restrain themself, they might dislike Malphas but he was the only way to get the master to maybe listen to them. It seemed apparent that The other three were a dead end. Satan should have no trouble finding and roping Asmodeus back in after all.

“Wh~hho is it? Wh~hho has arrived now? Is it our master?” Belphegor asked, darting his milk white eyes around the room, not really seeing anything.  
“No lord Belphegor, it’s simply me Malphas, I have come in our masters stead to represent him while he’s busy” Malphas said in response to the sluggish demon lord.

“Bus~sssy, so many moons he’s been busy now, last time I wa~aas awake he was still busy” Belphegor drawled on “ARE YOU RESTING PRINCE OF PRIDE!” He suddenly yelled out, and pointedly jabbed his Cain against the floor as he spoke. “DO YOU LAY IN SLOTH UNDERNEATH YOUR THRONE OH FALLEN KING OF WRATH!” He continued on, still banging his cain to the floor.

Belphegor’s demonic assistant came forth to try and calm their lord down. They whispered to their lord and it seems to do the trick, Belphegor nodded and the assistant took a hold of the handles of his wheelchair.  
“I care not for this, let you squabble about it without me, I shall return to my slumber” he said and jabbed his cain in the direction he wanted his assistant to take him. He was pointedly wheeled out of the conference room, leaving a trail of mucus behind him.

After that the Leviathan stood up as well.  
“I have made my opinions clear, and I have other duties to attend to, good day” she said and walked out as well.

Mammon said nothing and simply followed the other prince out of the room. Leaving Beelzebub alone with Malphas.  
“Seems I came all the way up here for nothing” he said with a sigh as he made to stand up as well.

“It’z not nothing, he’s hiding himself, if this were right after the failed apocalypse when we were all upset I could maybe give him the benefit of the doubt but not as late as this, he’s planning something, I know he izz” Beelzebub tried their hardest not to start yelling again, as little as they liked Malphas he was the only option they had left “just tell our maszzter, we can’t just wait and do nothing”

“I can tell him but I have a strong feeling he’s going to agree with the others” he shrugged “he did say that he trusts you all to solve any problem that might come up, you especially Beelzebub”

“It’s Lord Beelzebub” They mumbled under their breath.  
“I’m sorry what was that?”  
“I zzaid he could do well with trusting my intuition on thizz then” they said a bit louder.  
“Hmm are you sure though” Malphas said and walked over towards them. Making a pointed effort to look down on them the closer he got, trying to intimidate them with size wasn’t going to work, he’d do well to remember just how powerful they actually were, just because they were behaving nicely enough towards him now didn’t mean that they wouldn’t thoroughly enjoy ripping an eye or two from his smug face the moment their lord Satan wasn’t looking to closely at the lower demon.

“You know what I think” he said staring down at them “I think you’re still a bit to hung up about the fact that you completely missed that the serpent had been betraying us all this time” he bent down to get in closer “your trying to hard” he said, his disgusting smug smile way to close for their liking. His words were making their blood boil though, he could very well fuck off back to the lower levels of hell were he could continue to lick Lucifer’s boots while he tried to think himself all important and powerful. But they elected to say nothing, it was useless after all, and they had more pressing matters at hand.

Malphas left looking as smug as ever. And Beelzebub was starting to run out of ideas.

* * *

[1] if one were to be pedantic there was in fact never a time that the seven princes fully gathered, and that was for no other reason then that there is only five of them, the last two titles both belonged to Satan, and he was much more than just a prince.  
[2] it had taken them some time to evict all the squatters from the conference room for it to be used. No room in hell was ever completely empty.  
[3] a new found habit which had he been a smarter demon with more self preservation he should have quelled around the princes, as all four could easily discorporate him with very little effort

~

A new plan of action did fortunately arrive, though not by any thought from Beelzebub themself. They had in fact for the last ten minutes been kicking a very innocent filing cabinet out of share frustration. It was all so damn useless, there was no amount of demons they could simply send after him that he wouldn’t defeat with ease, and that was if they even could find him. the current only other option they had was for them to risk their own existence in order to fight their fellow prince, if their fears were indeed true and he had a sinister plot in mind they needed to put a stop to it after all. Said plan of action had more of a coin toss chance of either of them dying, as much as Beelzebub held the most amount of power and responsibilities in Hell the two were still evenly matched when it came to power. The most likely outcome was that they would end up killing one another. And then Hell would lose two of its princes in one fell swoop and then who was going to actually get stuff done? Mammon? he didn’t want to work, all he wanted was to reap the benefits of sitting on top of the Food chain. The leviathan? she was as spineless as the creatures she was tied to, she talked a big game but she wasn’t ever going to raise to the challenge, Belphegor? no, no one would consider him, the fucker barely moved these days.

Just as the dent they were making in the low grade metal of the cabinet was beginning to make the whole construct bend in half they were interrupted by someone entering their office.

“How are things faring my lord?” Dagon asked as she stepped into the office, Stolas following the lord of the files on shaky legs through the door.

“Theirszzz!” The buzzing of their voice was began to grow out of control, the sound of it inside their head intensified, they couldn’t think. Why couldn’t it all just be quiet for one moment. They closed their mouth, still feeling their vocal cords vibrating painful in their throat. They clutched at their head trying to will it to stop. Just stop, just be still, JUST BE QUIET.

“My lord?” Dagon walked up closer with a concerned look to her scaly face.  
“Itzzz nothzzing” they said in a low voice “I’m fine” they managed to say without their voice breaking. “They...didn’t...want to lisszten” they continued, they had managed to calm Their breath at the very least. They didn’t want this to get them so upset but it was all so frustrating, demons had been disappearing for months now, and they had been to swamped with work to do anything proper about it. But now they couldn’t wait, Asmodeus was gone and there had to be something bigger going on, they could feel it in their gut. But the others just wanted to pretend not to see the signs. As much as it frustrated them and drove them to anger they could understand it on some level, they were the first of the fallen, the first to swear fealty, to promise their master eternal loyalty. As much as they grated on each other’s nerves they were all tied together, they didn’t want to consider another betrayal, even if that meant putting their heads in the sand.

“Well, actually concerning that” Dagon said “Stolas had somewhat of an idea, or another option that wouldn’t have to include the other princes or our master”

Beelzebub stood up straight and looked over their subordinates.  
“What is it then?” they asked, truly they’d take any option that didn’t mean they had do fight Asmodeus themself at this point.

“Ho~, well it’s just” Stolas started.  
“Come on now, it’s a good plan I tell you” Dagon said, while giving the secretary an encouraging knock on his shoulder.  
“Well there isn’t only other demons that could take down a demon, I mean we also have” he pointed a talond finger upwards “them, and they are quite good at destroying us when they put their mind to it”

“You’re honestly telling me to go to heaven, and beg for their help” Beelzebub crosses their arms in front of them, it was true, it could possibly be an option, but there was also the very real fact that Beelzebub would rather die than beg heaven for anything.

“Well, no not necessarily, you see my lord there has been rumors” he continued on still looking nervous for even trying to suggest that they’d cooperate with heaven, as he rightfully should, had the situation been just a smidge less serious Beelzebub would have considered demoting him for even suggesting it. “Just as we have been losing personal, there has been talks of heaven doing the same”

“I find that very hard to believe” Beelzebub said as they leaned against their desk.  
“Why my lord?” Stolas asked.  
“People escaping from Hell isn't hard to imagine, but you’re telling me that just because they didn’t get their war they are just going to start running away from bloody paradise of all things” even with the angels being just as thirsty for blood as the rest of them, it wasn’t in an angels nature to want to rebel, except when it was, but then they promptly stopped being angels and became demons after all. That’s at least what Beelzebub believe, not that they knew a lot of angels, that prissy one on earth hadn’t fallen after all, and he wasn’t exactly falling in line with all that they believed angels had to be.

“I can’t tell you why but...perhaps similarly to the ones seeking themselves to earth to move past their nature such as the demon Crowley has, maybe that the angels that are disappearing want to evolve past their nature such as his principality friend did.” Stolas said, he didn’t seem unsure of what he was saying. He honestly appeared to believe every word he said.

“So I could offer my own services in their pursuit of whatever renegade angels they might have in exchange for aid in defeating Asmodeus” they said matter of fact.  
“It’s something though ain’t it my Lord? I believe it’s an option that’s worth considering” Dagon said, she was trying to be encouraging they realized.

“I don’t even know if anyone of them would be willing to meet with me at this point” tensions were still running high after all, even with their brief cooperation concerning their failed executions, many angels weren’t in the mood to let a powerful demon such as Beelzebub just waltz[1] right into heaven.

“There’s gotta be someone right? There’s millions of angels at least one of them gotta be at least a bit sensible?” Dagon said.

Beelzebub thought on it, had this been six months earlier they would have said no there was no angel that would consider speaking to them. But they caught themself in their tracks, was there perhaps a chance that he would listen to them.

There had been a real moment of understanding between the two of them on that airfield. A moment of dreadful realization that both of their jobs were about to become much harder then they had ever anticipated. And that six millennia of careful planning had just been thrown out the window in front of the both of them.

Gabriel has been the one to suggest that they should cooperate with their executions. There was a chance that he’d listen, a small one sure, they were still not fully convinced that angels could be disappearing, but it was enough that they’d at least have to try

* * *

[1] figuratively of course, while Beelzebub can, just as all demons, dance in some manner, none of said dances had ever been anything even resembling the waltz.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so we have a conflict set up by now and by the next chapter people are actually going to have to reluctantly cooperate, also sorry for my like five million headcanons that are making there way into this, that just kinda happend by the way nearly all the demons with names that show up are actually demons, you can google them and such, im just kinda doing my own thing with them to make them fit the GO universe a bit  
> anyway i will have the next chapter done... sometime soon ish, some of its already written


	3. From The Pit To The Pinnacle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new chapter from me, i have no clue to how this didn't take me for ever or so but yeah, here is it at least, i hope you will enjoy it, 
> 
> chapter titel is from the song [From The Pinnacle To The Pit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tdlg2JXuaQ) by Ghost (how much references to Ghost will i make in this fic? a lot, probobly to many)
> 
> and as always i'm dyslexic and i apologize for all the misspellings and grammatical errors i have not only made but not caught, i still hope you will enjoy reading it anyhow

One of The main entrances to earth from hell was in these days operated by a lift, this addition was only about a hundred years old, before that for a long time there had been a river but that was long gone now. 

Beelzebub cleared their throat to get the attention of the lift operator. Who was sitting half asleep in a chair next to their charge.

The noise was enough to wake them and they immediately jumped to their feet. 

“Eeh um, greetings m’lord” The demon Flaga managed to get out while brushing some dust of their clothing. They were dressed in manner of a bell boy of some kind. The sort one would think of when mentioning old and slightly haunted hotels. Their clothing had probably in fact been in a somewhat light color once upon a time, but they were a very deep burgundy by now thanks to all the blood that was quite frankly pouring out of most of the woman shaped demons orifices. It was staining their long grayish hair as well, making it almost look red. 

Quently enough Beelzebub noticed a small literal birds nest right next to the round hat that made up a part of their uniform, a few eggs still caught up in the ragged hair.

Beelzebub stepped into the lift, the operator following them inside. “So...where to m’lord?” Flaga asked.   
“The surface” they said, with no additional details.  
“Huh, if you just wanna go to earth you could do so yourself right?” Flaga seemed a bit confused.  
“It’s official business, now do as you’re order” Beelzebub didn’t want to stall anymore then they had to.  
“Righto then” Flaga said and closed the rusty iron gate to the lift “all the way up” they said as they bent the lever that transported one from one ring of hell to another, all the way to the bottom, a hard jerk got the lever to go further round past the deepest level until it landed on the small scratched up plack with the sigil of earth on it. The elevator began to wake back up to life and started to descend deep into hell.

The machinery, just like everything in Hell was old rusty and noisy. Beelzebub simply stared at the rock they were rapidly moving past though the iron gate.   
“Is it business with upstairs then? Gotta be if you have to take this path right?” The operator seemed chatty, it was not something Beelzebub was in the mood for indulging. “Been a long time since you last visited up there m’lord?” They asked, still leaning on the lever. 

A very long time indeed, they couldn’t remember it, there must have been once at least. Hadn’t they? Or Had they truly never been up their since they fell. They didn’t answer the question though in some vain hope that it would shut the operator up. “Last time I was there I still had a boat of all things” Flaga said and scratch at the slightly coagulated blood underneath their nose “they change how you look you know” they said with a smile.

That was not something they were aware of.  
“Truly?” They asked with a raised eyebrow.  
“Yeah, I went up there and I barely recognized myself. All clean and pristine. I asked them you know, I asked them ‘why you have to go mess with my corporal form? It’s mine ain’t it, shouldn’t I get to choose how I look?’ And you know what they told me?” The operator demon asked them, all while gesticulating wildly, making small blood drops land on the walls of the elevator. “They said, And i quote” they pitched their voice to sound more nasally in an imitation of the angel they were mocking  “‘your visage is unseemly, we would prefer it if you did not leave stains’ can you believe that, and it’s how I look on earth that I was wearing, if I actually had the look I wear downstairs I bet that prissy fucker would have fainted, you know I asked them even ‘haven’t you ever seen a leeper before? Do they frighten you perhaps?’” The operator was interrupted then by the lift coming to a stop, they had passed through the bottom layer of hell and were now at the surface.

Flaga opened the gate and pressed a small button to make the more modern looking metal doors slide open behind the gate. “Now then, we have arrived, Been nice talking to you m’lord” the lesser demon said. Beelzebub simply sighed, thankful that the ride wasn’t too long in the end. They stepped out of the lift into the corridor that held the two different entrance to Heaven and Hell “oh could you say hey to Rikiel for me by the by! Haven’t seen his little angel face in a few years now!” Flaga yelled after them before the metal doors shut on them.

Beelzebub continued on, their mind more occupied with how to pitch their offer to Gabriel once they finally reached the top, as they came to a stop in front of the elevator to Heaven they noticed just how different it looked to the one they had exited. Even though more modern doors sat at the outside of the lift to Hell, said doors were filthy and slightly rusting in places, a few signes plaster on it informing that not only was the elevator broken but to keep out, along with a few that read hazardous. The doors to heaven were it’s completely opposite. Both taller, wider and so cleanly polished that they could see their own reflection in the silvery metal doors, with many small well maintained embellishes to decorate the facade. Even the floor indicator had small metal wings decorating it. It made Beelzebub want to roll their eyes at no one in particular, just the mare fact that even when heaven was trying to blend in amongst human surroundings they really couldn’t help being so utterly and unnecessarily extra.

They pressed the button, hissing a tiny bit under their breath as the consecrated material touched their skin, a quite noticeable indent and mark was left on the button once they removed their finger. The floor indicator was completely blank, any human would of course not think much of this as a clean and almost new looking sign was placed on this elevator as well, informing any human that it was in fact out of order.

They stood waiting for a few minutes, staring at the floor indicator, nearly seven minutes passed until it flashed to life glowing with a heavenly light.  
“Finally” They mutter Under their breath as it arrived. As the doors opened even more heavenly light flooded out into the dimly lit corridor, smoke that looked more like clouds billowing out as the doors finally opened. The tall figure of an angel stood with the light behind him, dressed in full utter ridiculous regalia[1] with a spear in one hand.

The angel stepped closer looking down at them through the slits of his golden helmet.  
“Thou standeth at the precipice of The Kingdom of Heaven! State thy purpose!” The angels spoke in a booming voice that almost seemed to raddled the floor.

Satan bloody preserve me, Beelzebub thought.  
“I need to go upstairs” they stated while holding a hand up to shield their eyes from the light.  
“What is thy purpose within the kingdom of heaven?!” The angel said once more in his booming voice.

“Business” they said while shrugging “sensitive business”   
“Does thou haveth an appointment?” The angel said not changing the volume of his voice in the slightest.  
“What even..? No” they said.  
“If thou doth not haveth an appointment we can not grant thou passage in to the kingdom of heaven!” The angel continued, the loud volume was really beginning to grate on their nerves.  
“I’m a bit too important to be in need of having to make prior Appointmentszz” they said through gritted teeth while crossing their arms.

“If thou could state thy name and title, then we shall inquire if thou hasth an appointment” the angel continued.  
“I already told you I don’t have..”  
“State thy name and title” the angel interrupted them while banging the hilt of his spear into the floor.  
“Ugh” They pinched the bridge of their nose for a moment, perhaps telling him would give him a clue to understand just who he was dealing with. “Prince Beelzebub of the infernal ringzz of hell, lord of the flies, grand general of the demonic legionz of hell, ruler of the third, szzixth and szzeventh ring of hell, head administrator of ringz two to szzeven, previor of glu…”  
“We haveth inquired concerning thy presence and thou doth not haveth an appointment”  
“I am aware of that” they said once again through gritted teeth.  
“We can not grant thy entrance without an appointment” the angel repeated.

Oh that was it, Beelzebub moved quicker then the angel had a chance to react. Grabbing him by the top his breastplate and forcing him to bend forward.  
“Listen I have no interest in continuing thizz farce so if you value your little szztupid existence then you will do az I tell you” They buzzed at him, their other hand cradling a red and wild flame in its palm “underszztood?” They said bring the flame a little closer to the angels face.

“Y-y-yes of course ma'am I understand, p-please don’t hurt me” The angel stammered out. his large booming voice long gone and instead being replaced by the voice of squabbling office worker.  
“Zzir” they corrected him, letting the flame just slightly increased in size.  
“Yes sir! Of course sir” the angels voice said laced with panic.

Beelzebub then let go and extinguished the flame in their hand. They stepped into the elevator that was just as squeaky clean as the outside, not to mention much larger than the lift to hell. The angel followed them inside, seeming much shorter and no longer dressed in that ridiculous regalia, he now sported as most angels did a finely pressed and well fitted suit. His black hair was so back slicked that it still appeared wet, he also seemed to be shaking slightly with fear from being inside an in closed space with someone who had just threatened to burn him out of existence itself. Not that this was anything that Beelzebub even cared about, all they wanted right now was to get to their destination as fast as possible. The angel seemed scared to look at them and instead turned to the large hightech panel of backlit buttons and dials on the side of the elevator wall. He pressed a few in a complex pattern and the elevator began to ascend. Once again much to the difference of the hellish lift who’s machinery was shaky and loud this one was eerily quiet and smooth sailing, the only real indication that it was even moving was a small electric humm.

A few moments passed until the heavy silence became to much for the angel tasked with operating the elevator.  
“I apologize sir, it’s simply in the handbook that I great everyone…”  
“I don’t care” they said interrupting him, if the angels loud and booming voice that tried so hard to be intimidating had been grating it was nothing to the nasally way he spoke now.  
“Well yes I guess…” he trailed of, still not brave enough to look away from his panel.

A few more moments passed, that Beelzebub spent looking at their own reflection in the shiny metal doors in front of them[2], and then the operator mustered up the bravery to talk again  
“w-who is it that you are here to speak with?” The angel managed to say.  
“Is it truly necessary for you to know?” They asked back. Their arms once again crossed and leaning against the wall.  
“W-well it’s just I need to know so I can take you to the correct floor” he said, still slightly shaking with fear as he spoke. 

Beelzebub sighed, as much as they didn’t want to many angels to know that they were here or why they were here, it wasn’t an unreasonable question. From what they had heard described of Heaven it was a large place, finding where ever Gabriel had his office could taken unnecessary time if the operator simply let them out once they reached the first floor of heaven, especially if he could get them much closer.  
“I’m here to speak to the Archangel Gabriel” they said. Their words seemed to catch the operator's attention enough to get him to forget to be scared for a moment.  
“Oh truly?” He said casting a glance at them over his shoulder “huh that’s why your name sounded familiar” he said.

“What?” They asked in a tone that reminded the operator to be frightened again.  
“Oh no it’s nothing, just I believe I have heard Gabriel mention your name a few times is all” He squeaked out once again back to shaking and staring into his panel as if it held the answers to every mystery of the universe. [3] his words were interesting to Beelzebub though, what reason could Gabriel possibly have for talking about them to his colleges, and why would he do it so much so that an angel tasked with operating the elevator of all things would be made aware of it.

A few more moments passed by, it appeared that the trip to heaven was longer than the one out of Hell. The angel didn’t stop his fidgeting how ever, Beelzebub usually preferred people to fear them, you could get a lot of things done once someone fears you and loyalty was a lot more insured when the subject in question was afraid of the outcome should they fail you. But this was frankly unnecessary and they’d prefer it if the angel just did his job without fuss.

“You are Rikiel are you not?” They asked.  
“You know my name sir?” The angel didn’t seem any less afraid as they had hoped their meager attempt at small talk would rectify.  
“The ferryman sends their regards” they said. That did seem to have the desired outcome of distracting the operator.  
“That’s...kind of them to think of me” The Angel called Rikiel said seeming slightly flustered “I Hope Flaga is doing fine themself”   
“They have no reason not to be, still doing their job” even if they were a bit to chatty for Beelzebub’s liking but now here they were making bloody small talk with an angel, what had the order of things got to.  
“Right, of course” he said tapping his fingers a bit against the side of the panel “it feels odd you know, we’ve always worked so close by to one another and these days we rarely see each other at all” he said speaking wistfully almost, at least it was preferable to the squabbling, Beelzebub had enough of that in hell already from various lesser demons “strange as it is you know, I’ve had this job for so long but if the earth truly had been destroyed I would have to get a new one right” he continued on with a laugh. “I think I’d miss them a bit actually, it wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t know that they were just there a few feet away doing their own thing while I did mine” he said. He seemed a bit surprised by his own words as he spoke them, he had probably not put much thought into these things. 

They continued on in a much less stifling silence until finally the elevator reached its destination with a ding indicating that they had arrived.  
“Top floor, can’t really go much higher then this” The angel said with a nervous chuckle, Beelzebub paid it no mine, they had other more pressing things to think on, they stepped out of the elevator onto the polished marble floors of the empty reception area of a spotless office building.

The air in heaven felt different. It seemed clean but not in the way nature on earth could bring clean air. It was metaphorically like someone had taken the air and atmosphere of the entire room an scrubbed it until it bleed only to finish of with pouring bleach on the whole thing. It felt stifling and uncomfortable, not to mention to bright, everything all around them positively shining bright white. Said white wasn’t just as if someone kept it well cleaned, no this was a pristine cleanliness that could boast that it had never in its very existence been dirty. It also brought on a quiet that made Beelzebub feel uncomfortable, it took them a moment to realize what it was. Here there was no buzzing inside their being, as if all those pieces of them had stopped moving. They didn’t know how to feel about that, sure it annoyed the heaven out of them on most days but it had still always been a part of them. For it to just so easily be pushed away automatically by heaven was a bit frightening.

They looked down on themselves for a moment remembering the lift operators words. They had been correct, every medal or slightly demonic sigil that they usually wore on their clothing was completely gone, the net cover under their blazer was also missing and the length of their pants were long enough to cover their ankles. They were most of all disturbed by their hair that they could see in the reflection of the polished marble under their feet. Their hair that was usually choppily cut and generally unwashed was now completely clean and cut with a precision that simply didn’t exist in Hell.

“will you need help in getting to his office sir?” The operator asked from behind them.  
“No” they said “I’ll find it myself” as they finished speaking the angel Rikiel could see something almost pouring out of their hands, he thought it looked like smoke for a moment until he realized what it actually was. The demon in front of him opened their mouth wide and even more of it came out, he could hear the sound now, the beating of millions of tiny little wings. The smoke like swarm continued until it was enveloping the tiny demons entire frame. And then it suddenly wasn’t there anymore, the swarm flying away from the elevator. Disappearing from his sight, Rikiel dearly hoped to himself that he hadn’t done a grave mistake in caving in and letting a prince of hell into heaven without much struggle.

* * *

 

[1] said regalia in question wasn’t even similar to the way angels dressed or more accurately planned to dress once the war came, it was in fact a highly impractical and unnecessary attempt at looking imposing and powerful, something that worked very poorly once faced with one of the princes of hell.

[2] Beelzebub being the very busy leader and administrator that they were had very few opportunities to walk the earth, as such they were quite unused to and a bit unnerved to see their face so clean and healed

[3] it did not hold the answer to every mystery, but probably a few, after all the machinations held the secrets to how one can travel from one plane of existence to another which isn’t something to scoff at.

~

Gabriel’s office was a lot larger than their own, that was the first thing they took notice of once they reassembled their corporeal form. It had been a bit difficult to pinpoint down the office location, but staying in the form of the swarm had made things a bit easier to get around, hiding in the very few shadows that existed in heaven. 

The room was way to spacious, had this been hell anything of this size would house at the minimum twelve desks and maybe even more workers sharing said desks. Instead it only had one large and hyper modern desk, several built in modern screens in the frame of the slick design, accompanied by a chair with wheels and a high back made in white leather, of course with golden wings embroidered at the top of the back[1]. The roof was high with two of the walls made out what appeared to be rock, a strange imitation of jagged gray granite, made as if the room had been carved out of a mountain[2] the ceiling was high and if they made the effort they were sure they could see a mural covering most of it, depicting a biblical scene of some kind[3]. It was hard to make out though with the bright light that seemed to come from nowhere in particular and what looked like artfully placed clouds obscuring their view of it. The painting on the ceiling was the only addition of decoration to the room, the rock walls held no such art and the two other ones not made of rock were instead made completely in glass. 

The glass wall leading to the high double doors that was the entrance seemed to have been dimmed with some sort of slick mechanism to appear foggy, preventing someone to see inside from the rest of the building. The other glass wall however was a window peering out to the rest of Heaven. it was so very big for a lack of a better word. It seemed to stretch on forever, with a skyline peppered with various incredible landmarks from throughout human history. 

It was so different, they thought as they rested their fingertips against the cold glass that was so clear as it almost wasn’t there. It seemed to stretch on forever only more clouds obscuring parts of the horizon. The only horizon they knew had been the one on earth, this one was so large, quiet and empty. How did the angels not go mad from the stillness of it all they wondered. 

Looking around a bit more they tried to find some clue as to where Gabriel might be, he was obviously not there. A meeting perhaps or some other obligation that took him away from here. Waiting about at his office seemed to be a better plan to get to talk to him in private then to aimlessly wander around trying to look for him. 

They walked away from the glass wall to take a look at his desk, there wasn’t much to indicate that this was his desk especially, no decorations, no belongings, no paperwork bearing his signature even. Just electrical screens, at that time shut of and a board of white keys fitted into the long modern desk, they reminded them of the typewriter they had downstairs just obviously more modern and expensive. They looked behind the desk at the second rock wall, there was some kind of paneling made out of thick polished slices of marble stretching from one end of the wall to the other right behind the desk. It Seemed odd to Beelzebub but then again they weren’t exactly comprehending much of the strange technology or design choices of heaven. Just as they were about to knock on the panel to see if there was something behind it, they heard someone opening the door. 

They shifted themself quickly into their swarm and flew upwards towards the ceiling, hiding behind some of the artfully placed clouds. They didn’t want to be noticed should the person entering happen to not be Gabriel. But as luck had it, the Archangel they were looking for was the one entering into his office. He was dressed, quite differently from what he was usually seen in, some kind of workout gear[4] with a towel resting on his shoulders. Very odd indeed they though as they peered down towards him. He didn’t notice their presence, instead he calmly walked towards the paneling that Beelzebub had just been looking over. He performed some wave of his hands and the marble began to rise, not with any kinda miracle no, it was simply another slick unnoticeable mechanism raising the White paneling up and revealing a space behind it. Gabriel opening another glass door and walked inside it.

Beelzebub decided that this was a good moment as any to reassemble their corporeal form to talk to him. They descended down and became one body once more seating themself with their ankles crossed on top of Gabriel’s large desk.

They could see into the space behind the marble properly from this angle. It was more glass walls but behind it of all things were rows upon rows of clothing hanging of racks, so much in fact that they couldn’t even see Gabriel inside of it. Of all things why keep a walk in closet in your office. Angels were indeed very strange, or perhaps it was just this one specific angel that had some kind of strange fixation on clothing. They elected to wait until he was done before getting his attention. 

They took a moment and looked over the clothes he owned. all of them kept a theme going with similar light color schemes, mostly muted grays with only hints of lavender here and there, it uniformly also seemed to consist of mostly suits. Why would anyone need so many they wondered, especially when none of them even needed human made clothes anyhow. 

But one thing did catch their eye, it seemed that the large fresco on the ceiling wasn’t the only piece of decoration after all. The glass door that lead in to the closet had a sort of picture frame or box also made of glass fitted inside the middle of it. In that framed box made of glass was an instrument seemingly suspended in the air. A harp to be exact, made out of gold. It was incredibly old they noticed and a bit broken, it was bent in one way that it appeared that someone had stepped on it at one point, another part had a piece missing but the broken of part was kept right next to the rest of the instrument, it to looked suspended in the air. Most of the strings were missing, only six still intact and those looked worse for wear. The gold also looked corroded in some parts, pieces breaking of in small flakes, said flakes were also kept within the frame. 

It must be practically ancient, and looked like someone had tried their best to ruin it at one point, no one was going to be able to play on that thing again that’s for sure. But still why would he keep it? It wasn’t like it could be a modern art piece of some kind, it was to old for that. And why keep such a thing on display but still out of sight behind the marble panel wall. It was an eccentricity they really didn’t expect to find in Gabriel. 

But around the same time they thought on that Gabriel walked out of the still open closet, he had changed his outfit, out of his workout clothing and into a more business like attire that they were used to seeing him in. He wasn’t fully done though, he wasn’t wearing a blazer yet and he had an untied lavender tie slung over his shoulders. 

Looking down at his own tie for a moment until he looked up and locking eyes with them. He didn’t lose his composure for a moment though he did look very surprised.

“Lord Beelzebub, I can't say I was expecting you” he said while raising a perfectly shaped eyebrow.  
“I would assume as much,” they answered “didn’t exactly call ahead to tell you that I was going to show up” they leaned their chin in their hands as they talked. Gabriel didn’t answer that at first and instead fixed his tie to make himself more presentable. He walked forward to his desk and pulled his chair out, picking up a gray blazer that had been slung over the armrest of the chair. He cast another glance at them as he put it on.

“Do you really have to sit on my my desk?” He asked as he straightened out the fabric over his frame.  
“You only have one chair and I assumed it belonged to you” they asked looking over at it. That answer seemed to suffice, he didn’t say more on it and sat down instead. He looked stiff even sitting down they noticed.  
“So to what do I owe the pleasure? I trust hell is doing well?” He said as he turned the chair to the side a bit to face them.

“It’s a shit show, more than usual even” they said feeling a bit like groaning at the thought of how very much worse it had become lately, so much work so little time, so many incompetent staff members.  
“Well I’m sorry to hear that” he said “Heaven… has seen better days so to say lately” he said “but I mean after all we might have all the time in the world to work out any trouble that comes up” he forced a laugh at the end, he was obviously trying to come of as nonchalant but he was likely just as overworked and confused as everyone else was, themself included. 

“An eternity of work does not sound to comforting for my tastes” they said with a scoff. Gabriel simply shrugged.  
“There’s not much else to do but work, some one has to” he said, for once not sounding as annoyingly chipper as he usually did “not all of us can simply shirk our duties to pretend to be humans on earth after all” he was still a bit bitter even with all the time that had passed, Beelzebub could relate, they had been cursing Crowley this were morning.

“Our recently more difficult Work is why I’m here actually” they said.  
“Oh and here I thought we were just catching up” he was joking, had to be, why the heaven would he wanna spend time in their presence willingly.  
“It’s concerning a sensitive matter so I would request, as i am someone you do respect, that this would be kept of the records” they continued on disregarding his comment implying that the two of them spending Time together wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. 

“Oh well, I’d love to” he said, he was right back to his normal disposition, all smiles and positivity, how the heaven did he have the energy to keep that up so much they wondered. “But I can’t make to many promises, if the information might mean a danger to heaven that I simply can’t just stay quiet about it”  
“It doesn’t have anything to do with heaven and it won’t bring any danger to it” at least not soon anyway, they had no clue to what Asmodeus might be planning but a full frontal assault on heaven seemed out of the picture for now.  
“Well” Gabriel said clapping his hands in front of him “in that case I don’t see any reason that i can’t grant you that request” 

Beelzebub sighed a bit, they were about to admit a tiny weakness in front of the enemy, even though it was for the greater good it still felt painful to inform Gabriel of their shortcomings.  
“In recent days following the hindered apocalypse, demons under our allegiance has begun to disappear. We assume they have taken refuge on earth but exactly where we are not sure, nore have we figured out why” Gabriel didn’t need to know many were leaving to follow up on the mystery of the serpents botched execution, he knew it hadn’t worked, Michael’s presence had ensured that. But he didn’t need to know that their attempts to keep that fact secret from the majority of their population had been unsuccessful. “A few days ago, a very powerful demon disappeared, previously it had just been minor occurrences, demons of the inferior order or lower ranking, for the moment it could be disregarded. But he...his absence is concerning to say the least, a being with that amount of power simply disappearing can not bode well for anyone” 

“And you need our help to find and potential stop this demon then? That is why you are here?” He said, his smile as he said it was to cooky fro Beelzebub’s tastes.  
“no” they said pointedly while narrowing their eyes at the Archangel “not exactly ,I have heard that there’s been rumors that similarly to us, Heaven has had their people go missing as well, if that is indeed the case then I’m here to offer my own services in exchange for help concerning my missing demon” 

Gabriel looked perturbed for a lack of a better word, it was unusual to see him not completely in control, so sure of himself. But now they truly couldn’t read him or what he was thinking.  
“Who told you about this information?” He said resting a finger against his lips while it seemed the gears in his head were turning, he had quite beautiful lips they caught themself thinking, and as fast as they managed to form that thought they immediately threw it aside, they had not thought that, they would never think that, why would they ever even consider that? But it wasn’t that strange right, angels were made attractive by design,well most of the time at least, Gabriel especially, his eyes for instance were very striking, their unnatural color even more vivid in the heavenly light, no no no they were not thinking about this now, this was not the time or place, just because this happened to be the first time they had seen him in quite a while...“Beelzebub?” They were interrupted in their thoughts by Gabriel “are you alright?” He asked. He did sound concerned, not the fake kind you’d extend to a coworker who looked a bit hungover after the weekend but actual concern. But they were going to ignore why that could be as well.

“Yes of course it’s nothing, the light up here is giving me a headache” they said, which wasn’t untrue, they were incredibly unused to this sort of light that didn’t flicker once every other second and hum loudly by the electric current running through them. “I was informed by...my sources” well their secretary, who was a bit of a gossip, and who while having a vast knowledge of astronomy and gemstones wasn’t exactly a very credible source. But Gabriel didn’t need to know that. “Do you doubt their credibility?” They asked, he really should.  
“No, no it’s not that” he said sounding quite defensive “well it’s just that…” he trailed of for a moment, casting a glance towards the still dimmed glass doors of his office. “We don’t really have any problems with people missing” 

Beelzebub felt the strong urge to bash their head into the closest available surface, of course there were no Angels missing, of course there wasn’t, no one would willingly run away from heaven, and angels don’t disobey, it’s not in their components to disobey. Demons disobeyed, they break rules all the fucking time, that’s why you have to threaten them to stay in line, but angels fundamentally do not. And they had come here banking on a bloody rumor of all things, ending up looking like a incompetent imbecile in front of their enemy. They jumped of Gabriel’s desk and began to walk towards the door.

“Wait, it doesn’t mean we can’t help you if…” Gabriel tries to say before they turned around and interrupted him.  
“I have no intereszzted in indebting myszzelf to you or yourszz angel” they practically hissed out at him, coming here had been a mistake, a very large mistake. What They needed to do was come up with a proper plan, a plan that wouldn’t get themself killed or rely entirely on Lucifer getting out of his slump. What they didn’t need was to come here and re awaken that stupid attraction to the Archangel that they had apparently caught when they had meet that day. They had done such a great job of suppressing it hadn’t they, they had all but convinced themself that they’d imaged the whole thing but no. They were wasting their time.

“Oh well, Still there’s no reason you have to leave right away…” Gabriel sounded odd now, nervous almost, what was he playing at? “We could eeh get something to… its drink when it’s a beverage right? well you could if you’d like to, do demons consume matter?”  
“Szzome do” they said while raising their eyebrow.  
“No wait we don’t have any such things up here, ehm you could stay and enjoy the view for a bit, it’s gotta be better than what you get downstairs right” he said while gesturing towards the large window “we could cath up a bit, one administrator to another, if you’d like?” He did sound nervous, they weren’t just imagining it. It really was strange times they were all in after all. To see Gabriel look anything from his normal beaming self assured self was baffling but they could contemplate that on another day.

“Good day Archangel Gabriel” they said as they open the door to his office and dissolved themself back into a swarm the moment the door closed behind them, and began to search themself towards the elevator again.

* * *

 

[1] as much as one might be able to call Beelzebub a hypocrite for finding such embellishments tasteless, for hell didn’t exactly possessed any type of taste but also the fact that there was a number of many different and old embellishments on nearly every wall in hell, but at least in Beelzebub’s opinion they weren’t as repetitive at least, demons had many different sigils mostly representing themselves, but at least they often served the purpose of marking your stuff as your stuff and promising incredible pain if anyone should touch said stuff.

[2] the inclusion of rock in the decor did puzzle Beelzebub a bit seeing as they were as far away from any mountain as one could be. It was different though to the underground caverns that the hallways of hell had been carved out of, there the rock surrounded them, here someone had deliberately chosen to make it look like actual stone for no other reason then the aesthetics. 

[3] if Beelzebub in fact had any proper knowledge about biblical art present In Italian churches they would have recognized the fresco as a copy of The  **Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power** by Pietro da Cortona, but they did not and it all just looked like a bunch of inaccurate human interpretations of angels to them

[4] Beelzebub did not know the actual terminology for these things, and only has a flimsy grasp of what the term workout even means

~

They had been back in Hell for a few hours now, the technical day staff was beginning to collapse where they stood and be replaced by the night staff slowly regaining consciousness. 

Day and night did not account for much down there where no sun would ever shine. But it was usually divided by how long a demon physically could work until their mind and body caved in. Such matters did not mean much for Beelzebub, rest was not one of their vices and they could work on for months without a break. Or they used to be able to at least, these days frustration kept on exhausting them mentally and their body was still tied to their being in the end and didn’t hold up as much as they might wish it would. The last couple of hours had been no exception, not only were they greeted with even more work as soon as they returned but now they also had to think on what to do next.

They knew they were in the right to seek aid, it was the only option they had that wouldn’t mean they’d risk dying. But they disliked to have shown weakness, especially in front of Gabriel, he kept on getting under their skin and they couldn’t even understand why, and as dense as he was he probably couldn’t understand It either. 

They had taken a few minutes break from their constant work and taken a trip to one of the many communal bathrooms that existed in the management part of hell. They were leaning over a sink, staring holes into their own reflection, the only noise in the room was the sound of pipes leaking and the flies swarming around their head, they had been staring at themself for maybe three minutes or so. What kinda sick joke was their existence even, they were all just pawns on a little board to the almighty in the end, and as it turns out they weren’t even as big of a piece as they had thought. Fucking Satan damn predestined bullshit, they had done their job well, followed every instructor to a tee and what did they get for it. Ridicule by one of their own subordinates and a endless wave of work in the wake of their own failure. Curse and damn that fucking snake and his little prissy angel, curse and damn the fucking kid who was supposed to end it all for once, just let it all come to a fucking end, and curse and damn the almighty especially, curse her beyond hell and oblivion. Was she laughing at them now, like she probably did when they all got so very fooled, was she laughing at their inability to return to the fold, their incompetence to solve the problem of one reneged demon. She probably fucking was. 

They turned their eyes to look at the brown water at the bottom of the filthy cracked porcelain. 

“Useless” they mumbled under their breath, they were then caught completely by surprise when they suddenly heard a unfamiliar voice speak up right behind them  
“Soo I might have been slightly exaggerating when I…” Gabriel was interrupted then by Beelzebub turning around a throwing a fist full of fire at him, only missing his head by a few centimeters. They had not heard him enter at all, and had been caught completely off guard, as high strung as they were at that point they had gotten scared for a moment and tried to defend themself from whatever attacker was sneaking up on them. 

“What?! The heaven do you think you’re doing?!” They yelled out at him, as soon as they noticed it wasn’t a threat[1].  
“Approaching you discreetly?” He said, his hands still up in the air.  
“Really, szzeemed an awful lot like you were szzneaking up on me” They said, they had not been scared that they’d possibly could have hurt him, they were not. What did it matter to them if he got hurt or died, nothing, nothing at all in fact they couldn’t care less at all whether he lived or died. Sure he might be the only angel they found moderately tolerable but that was besides the point.

“I promise I was not intending to sneak up on you” he said, smiling again. That stupid handsome smile, Satan they wish he’d stop doing that. It wasn’t even like the smarmy kind that their colleagues displayed once they were disgustingly proud of themselves. No Gabriel’s stupid handsome smile had to be sincere.  
“Well in that casze you have an unbelievable talent for it” They said crossing their arms, “why are you here? How did you even get here?” It was concerning to them that he had been able to get in without them knowing at all.

“You know I could have asked you the same thing with how you got in upstairs earlier” he said, which wasn’t an answer.  
“Heaven is vast and empty, it’s not difficult to hid from no one in an empty room. Down here on the other hand you can’t swing a dead rat without hitting something sentient” to many people and a lack of space, someone should have seen him, some one should have taken notice of the over six feet tall angel dressed in his spotless business casual clothing and told them about it. “Besides the lift is closed at this time” they said. The building[2] that housed the entrance ways closed at a designated time, and so did their pathway upstairs. It wasn’t to bad really, it was only a pain in the ass to navigate from one ring to another without the lift, but they did have stairs for that purpose. And traveling to earth was child’s play for any reputable demon without the aid of the lift.

“Well let’s just say, i have a few avenues available that most others don’t” he said, trying to play coy was he, they thought on it for a moment until it clicked.  
“You flew here?” It was an impressive feat to be honest, most wouldn't be capable to manage that type of decent without seriously injuring themselves[3] but an Archangel possibly could, there was a lot of power in all those wings after all. “I guess I need to post Guards at the gate again”  
“Or simply lock it perhaps? Why was it open by the way”  
“People go out there to smoke”  
“They can’t smoke in Hell?”  
“Of course not, have you even seen how much paperwork we deal with on a regular basis, it’d be a fire hazard” as much as brimstone, sulfur and hellfire had been a part of the job for millennia, fires in the close overpopulated pathways of hell was nothing anyone wanted to deal with. “But that’s beside the point, Why are you here Gabriel?” 

“Well I…” he took a deep breath “could we maybe take this in a more private place?” He asked.

* * *

 

[1] if Beelzebub had put any amount of thought into that assumption they would find themself baffled at the idea that they no longer considered the Archangel a threat, any other demon would certainly feel that he was one of the biggest threats to ever exist.

[2] it was an office building just like any other to any human, Hell was of the opinion that once the building closed they had no reason to keep the lift running.

[3] that was because that decent wasn’t created to be survivable, it was created to change a beings very fiber.

~

Beelzebub lead Gabriel back through the long winding and damp corridors of hell towards their own office. Lucky him, all of hell was still dealing with the switch from over exhausted demons retiring for a few hours until they’d wake and replace the other ones that would collapse from exhaustion. To the ones that were replacing the others for the moment. So for once not too many saw him, but still enough so that Beelzebub knew they’d hear no end of it once he left.

They took him into the front room before their office, it was tiny with two different desks on either side of their door. Otherwise the room was full of filing cabinets and shelves housing other files. Stolas had collapsed from exhaustion for a moment on top of his desk, Dagon was not at her own at the moment, probably lending her filing skills on some other ring at the moment.

They opened the door that bore the first sigil to ever represent their name on it, it had been etched into the wood a long ago, their name was also written above it in the Latin lettering with paint that looked suspiciously a lot like blood. As they walked in they had a moment of feeling self conscious of their own office space. It was so crammed and messy in comparison to Gabriel’s large spotless one. Barely any wall in the room didn’t have either a shelf or cabinet of some kind against it, and their desk was positively bombarded with files, papers and other nicknacks they kept around for no other reason then they were bad at throwing things away. To difference from his bare gray walls, every visible part of their walls had a number of sigils draw on them, most were just variations of their name. Marking the space as theirs and no one else’s, it was useful, kept any squatters from daring to go inside when they weren’t occupying it.

“You know when I said that we should go somewhere private, I assumed we’d go to your quarters” he said while looking around the room, the sound of flies buzzing was much more present in their room then anywhere else in hell.  
“And?” They asked as they took a seat on their very old beat up couch.  
“This is your office”  
“Which is also my quarters” they said matter of fact. Their answer appeared to confuse Gabriel a lot.  
“Aren’t you technically royalty down here?” He asked in disbelief.  
“Yes and as a prince of hell i'm entitled to my own room” they said, gesturing around the cramped up area.  
“That you also use for work”  
“I don’t have any other use for it, to difference from you I don’t actually have any leisure time that I can use for…” they tried to remember what the heaven the name of the type of running that the cloths Gabriel had wore earlier usually meant he’d taken part of. “Jagging or whatever it is you do when you don’t work” they barely had free time, and anytime they did it was because they were ignoring something they had to do, there was no time that they weren’t constantly needed. “I’ll take it over living communally with the rest of the rabble”

“It’s called jogging, and I guessed I Thought you’d be treated well down here with how important you are” He said taking a seat next to them.  
“Hell isn't enjoyable for anyone, doesn’t matter how high up the ladder you are” they said, it was a simple fact of their existence, they did have it better then most anyhow so they weren’t interested in complaining.  “So are you going to make me ask you a third time?” They said leaning back in lazy position into the worn out fabric of their couch. 

“Yes right, I just wanted to clarify something, so I was slightly exaggerating when I said we had no problems with our people going missing” Gabriel looked embarrassed to admit it, likely as embarrassed as they had felt earlier when they had admitted to having lost some of their staff.  
“So you were lying to me?” They said narrowing their eyes towards the Archangel Sitting next to them.  
“No, I wasn’t lying, I never said that we’re not missing people, I said we’ve had no problems concerning our people missing, which we do not...well not yet, that we know of” he wasn’t to convinced of it himself even.  
“How long ago did your people start to go missing?” They asked, raising an eyebrow towards Gabriel  
“Well since right after we had to stand down” he said with a sigh  
“So six months and in that time you have found how many of them?” They continued to ask.

“None we haven’t found anyone of them” he sounded incredibly defeated but it was honestly a bit funny to Beelzebub, while it was unnecessarily mean, and he had been kind enough to not find it funny that they’d failed in their tasks they couldn’t help but laugh a little at it. It was always just a bit fun to hear high and mighty heaven fail from time to time “Well neither have you so why should we do a better work at it?”  
“You do possess something that we do not that works in your advantage” they said as they stopped their laughter  
“And what exactly would that be?”  
“A vantage point” they smiled a bit more at it, no one in heaven had to pear through miles and miles of dirt and rock to see anything on earth and they still found none of them.

“Well my point is that yes you were right, we could both use one another’s help in this, especially as our most recent deserter is incredibly difficult to find” Gabriel said.  
“Who is missing that so difficult to find then?” Beelzebub asked, leaning their chin in their hand.  
“Raziel, he hasn’t been seen in four days now, strange as he hasn’t left heaven in more then three thousand years” Raziel, one of the seraphim and Archangel, the keeper of secrets. Indeed he sounded like someone that would be hard to find. Being high up enough meant that you had to know the names and skills of your rivals at least, and Raziel was high up enough for them to know exactly who he was.

“You think he might be up to something?” They asked, there was still the possibility for them both that their missing people had nothing more planned then to shirk their duties.  
“More than the others do, I had overheard him say somethings that doesn't bode well” Gabriel was honestly worried about this, maybe just as much as they were worrying about Asmodeus. “He was asking a lot about the execution of The traitor Aziraphale, I don’t know how it got out to the rest of heaven but many seem aware of the... less than optimal outcome of that execution” 

“Oh that, might have been our man’s fault” they were speaking of the demon who’s services they’d lent in the form of hellfire, “he’d know whether or not the fire had killed him even if you’d moved the angel once he came back”  
“You honestly think he’d talk to an angel about it?” Gabriel asked confused.  
“I think that the Legion possesses many tongues and they are all prone to wagging” he was useful enough as it were, no other demon were as capable of inhabiting more then one body at once as he was.

“Well that would explain how word of it got out to the rest of heaven, I’d never believe Sandalphon to gossip about such sensitive information, but the only other one who could have known and spoke of it is Uriel but she doesn’t talk more than she believes she has to and much less does she gossip” Gabriel said “Raziel spoke much concerning it anyhow and of other things that i don’t like to think about” they simply raised an eyebrow “well it was a lot about, how the current administration should have understood and planned better for the possibility of the great plan not coming to fruition” the current administration, meaning Gabriel, which meant that this Raziel was question him, not god mind you, angels who question god don’t stay angels, just one of her workers. But Beelzebub could relate to Gabriel feeling worried about such dissent, could mean that Raziel wanted change, and that he might be ready to enact that change drastically.

“So who is it then that you’re missing that you need my help with?” Gabriel asked, changing the subject.  
“One of my peers” they said “Asmodeus, one of the princes of hell”  
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, were you close?” He asked  
“No, he’s an asshole, but most of us don’t get along, we all have rings to rule[1] of our own so we don’t need to interact to much” Beelzebub answered, they had all been close once, when they had been the first to fall and change, at the time they had nowhere else but one another to turn to in that despair, but all that was long ago, longer than the earth and time itself had existed. They no longer had any fond feelings for their fellow princes, they hadn’t had any for millennia.

“He does possess a lot of power, and I don’t trust that it’s simply nothing, if he only wanted to go play hooky I would have been informed, but I was not. Plus he is hiding himself and he is doing it on purpose, which is something that someone with the amount of power that he does possesse can’t easily do” the whole situation was confusing and dier they needed to find him, but at least it seemed that they had Gabriel’s help to count on. 

“So the two of you are matched in power, that’s why you need my help” he said, they answered him with a nod.  
“So it’s You personally who’s going to help me then?” Beelzebub asked.  
“Yes, unless you’d prefer someone else”  
“No no, I had hoped you'd be the the one…” he was tolerable as far as angels came, not the sharpest perhaps but pragmatic which fitted their tastes...handsome to look at ...“you are the only angel I actually know so” do not think those thoughts, do not, they repeated in their head “by the way, why didn’t you tell me you had people missing when I visited you?” Why come all the way down here to speak of it, did he think he wasn’t going to be listened in on here? In hell of all places with their thousands of demons all crammed in close, most of them possessing working ears.

“I do apologize for that, you see us at upper management, we don’t wanna...acknowledge it too much that our people are gone, if we acknowledge it, it’s a problem, if it’s a problem people will talk about it, if people talk about it, everyone in heaven will be made aware about it, and if everyone is aware about it we will have imitators.” Gabriel sounded frustrated as he spoke of it, it appeared he wasn’t a big fan of that course of action.  
“So you are willfully ignoring it to pretend that everything is alright” they said, it was truly baffling sometimes the share thickheadeness that heaven often displayed.  
“Yes it...it does look like that’s what we are doing” he answered.  
“But you don’t like?” Beelzebub asked him.  
“I...politely disagree with the others, that the best course of action is to wait and see” it was obviously that he hated it but he was to committed to his role of the kind and understanding boss to actually say it with any vitriol. “That’s why it was comforting to have you come and speak to me, I didn’t have much of a plan, I didn’t even know where I would start looking and I imagine your people might have better luck in locating Raziel then ours” Gabriel said.

“Why do you think that?”  
“His powers are divine in origin, that he could hide from any divine attempts at finding him when his expertise lays in keeping things secret is obvious, but I doubt he’s as familiar with infernal powers” he continued, he had a bit of a point, divine aid might be a easier bet to find Asmodeus as well now that they thought on it, but they still had no clue to how he was keeping himself hidden.  
“Sounds good enough, we have a deal then. We shall both work together in order to locate and if necessary neutralize our missing people” Beelzebub stood up and reached their hand forward to Gabriel who stayed seated. He observed their hand for a moment.

“You know they say that making deals with demons is always a bad idea” he said.  
“Your immortal being isn’t on the line here, just take my damned hand” they answered him. To his credit he did do it without a fuzz, his hand was soft, strong but not that it brought pain to his handshake, just a firm undercurrent that he held a lot of power in his hands, and he was warm, warmer then they’d imagined with how cold and impersonally heaven was. They realized they had held on to him just a moment to long, and quickly pulled their hand away and turned their gaze towards their desk instead of him.

“So do you have any clue to where you’d like to start looking? Has any of your people on the ground seen anything that might be of use” that was the first time they’d actually touched him, they hadn’t even realized that they’d been anticipating it.  
“Oh well, no” he said looking a bit sheepish as he spoke.  
“What do you mean no?” They said turning back to face him.  
“We had pulled back everyone that we had stationed on earth you know before the battle and we haven’t actually had the time to...deploy them again” he has to be kidding, It had been six months since the intended apocalypse, Hell had put their people back to do their tempting and daming the next day for satan's sake. “We don’t really put our people on earth to often” he continued on with his slightly embarrassed smile. 

Beelzebub sighed, bloody marvelous, This collaboration was coming of to a great start. “We’ll start with mine then” they said, and walked over to their desk picking up a small stained note. “One of my people believe that she’s found a lead in relation to Asmodeus, she wants to meet me here tomorrow evening” they reached over the note to Gabriel which had an address and time written on it in scratchy lettering 

**'The Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Hyde Park, 66 Knightsbridge London, 20.30'**

“Don’t be late” they said 

* * *

 

[1] while the other rings might be ruled by the other princes, most of the actual work of keeping those rings running effectively was left to Beelzebub most of the time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so stuffs getting started, plot is happening, i dont know when the next chapter will be done probably sometime next month because i'm swamped cosplay work for the rest of this one so ahh help,
> 
> so i know technically we see demons don't have to sleep in the book/show (we just know that crowley really likes to) but i figured that if you work non stop you'll probably mentally check after some time,  
> also the reason why the lift to/from hell goes downwards when traveling to earth is a reference to the divine comedy where the only exit from Hell is to go through the lowest ring  
> and heres the [Fresco](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/03/6c/27/036c276aca573f67e943fea1a5254bf9.jpg) that Gabe has a copy of in his office  
> anyway i hope you liked it <3


	4. Pretty Women and Girls on Film

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so it's been quite a while, and i'm sorry for that, i had like a major writers block around summer and then school started and then the seasonal deppresion set in, and also this chaper once again became a lot longer then i first intended, only at the behest of my friend did i decide that splitting it in two was probably necessary because a chapter at about over 15 000 words is a bit of a slog to get through, but hopefully next part wont take that long as a lot of it is already writen, so here it is, these two at their first attempts at working together and more wacky demons showing up  
> so chapter title is actually from two songs this time: [Oh, Pretty Woman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KFvoDDs0XM) by Roy Orbison and [Girls on Film](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBeC3JBsRM4) by Duran Duran
> 
> as always im very sorry for my spelling and grammar errors that show up, my dyslexia doesn't let me have fun

The night air was cold when Gabriel materialized right at the edge of Hyde park at exactly 20:20 in the evening. He stretched his neck for a moment, getting a bit re accustomed to occupying the physical plain. Getting out of Heaven inconspicuously had been a bit of a difficult task, he’d managed to convince the others that he was simply popping down for a quick jogging round and nothing more, hopeful it would take them sometime to actually understand that he’d been gone for a lot longer then he’d ever been before while spending leisure time on earth. Luck would have it if they’d start looking for him, that the european continent wouldn’t be their first guess, he hadn’t taking his jogging anywhere close to England in these past months, instead opting for taking his time in some of the American city’s instead. He didn’t miss jogging in London really, it was just a human city, there were many others like it, dime a dussen in this day and age, he had no real reason to ever step a foot in the city ever again, well until now at least.

Gabriel sighed for a bit, seeing how the breath  his body was instinctively taking formed into a cloud of mist as the warmer air internal to his flesh body meet the colder air of the night. looking around he couldn’t see a lot of humans milling about, he could sort of understand why, it was quite late and the chilly air of the the early spring wasn’t exactly pleasant. 

The demon he was awaiting wasn’t anywhere in sight either, but then again he wasn’t very familiar with how clandestine meetings in the night with your enemy were supposed to go down, also he was early. They had told him quite pointedly not to be late after all, and he had no desire to disappoint them. The demon lord was, intriguing to him if he were to be honest, he wasn’t often curious about things, curiosity was useless when you knew almost everything after all. But he didn’t know much about demons and even less about Beelzebub specifically, they’d only ever meet one another briefly during the many millennia of earth's existence. Only ever in passing, by accident, and he’d never really thought on them. They’d just been another demon, another disillusioned creature to be defeated when the time should come. That they were more powerful than most demons who all usually ran and cowered in his presence hadn’t ever really registered as significant to him at The time.

He knew of them of course, even most humans had heard the name Beelzebub before. He’d have to know, they were the second most powerful demon after his fallen brother. But that moment when they’d both arrived to see what had gone wrong with the anti-christ had been the first time Gabriel had realized that the small dark haired demon he’d run into a handful of times, was in fact his direct opposite on the other side. They had not been at all what he’d expected, he’d assumed them to be very much like his brother in most ways, but they weren’t at all, in fact they were as different from Lucifer as one could get [1]. But it did lead him to wonder a great number of things. They were his opposite after all, as close to an actual equal to himself as he’d ever be able to get. So he’d regrettably spent a great amount of time when he was not working thinking about them, and even talking about them to some of his colleagues. Mostly Sandalphon, asking what he might know or what other angels might know of them, if they’d ever run into them before. His fellow Archangels would likely think his thoughts absolutely ridiculous even if he’d prepared a number of excuses to why he spent so much time thinking about the lord of Hell[2]. 

He had even attempted some excuses to try and interact with them again, he had been the one to suggest the cooperation between heaven and hell for the purpose of getting rid of their respective traitors. But that whole debacle had turned out very unsatisfactory to say the least. After that he had no real opportunity to try his hands at talking to them again, just more work, and then there had been the disappearances. Gabriel found the idea of having to operate without a plan unpleasant, but that didn’t mean he was going to abandon his duties. To many angels looked up to him, to many people relied on him, he simply couldn’t falter in anything, every decision, every promise, it all had to hold, but he was at a loss to how to handle the situation. Even with the disappointment of being fooled for so many years he couldn’t fathom how that could make some want to abandon their purpose. Not only was this something heaven had never before dealt with, it hadn’t ever come to pass that he’d disagreed with what his fellow higher ups decided would be the best course of action. 

Throwing a problem to the side and pretending that it didn’t exist wouldn’t solve it, as much as he hated to think it, they couldn't simply count on the almighty to sort the mess out should it become to complicated. He didn’t know what she wanted or did these days, how many years had it been since he’d last heard her speak to him, how even more had it been since she gave him a task to perform. Gabriel was of the belief that facing a problem head on was the only true way of getting anywhere, it might be blunt but it showed results in the end. But without the agreement of his fellow Archangels he couldn’t make any excuses for it. 

That was why when the prince of Hell seemed to almost materialize out of thin air in his office it had felt like a god sent miracle[3]. Helping them seemed like a good compromise, he would not be going against the wishes of his fellow angels or the rest of heaven if he simply let the Demon Prince deal with Raziel. And heaven could surely not have any objections to him smiting a demon for the trouble. Their presence had though reignited his fascination for them, he would be lying if he said he didn’t look forward to spending time with them. They were so foreign to him in so many ways but for once in his existence, Gabriel was not struck with the feeling of unease or revulsion when faced with something he didn’t quite understand. It was a new feeling to him, this type of curiosity, and he was intrigued in seeing where it might lead him. 

He wondered a bit if he would get the time to maybe ask them a few things about themself. Or if they’d even allow him to do so. What was the hierarchy of hell and just where exactly did they place on it. Exactly how many titles did they possess, what kind of angel had they’d been all that time ago in heaven to have caught his brother’s attention.

Just as Gabriel thought that, he heard something make a sound from across the street in the middle of a small patch of grass in the park. It was the sound of rock breaking and earth being pushed aside. He then saw Beelzebub’s tiny frame ascended to the surface as the earth broke apart to let them through. They finally came to a stand still as the ground healed back together underneath their feet, leaving no trace that a demon had arisen through it. 

They took a deep breath while brushing the dust and earth of their blazer, they glanced around and finally saw him standing on the opposite side of the road. They waved at him to come up closer, and Gabriel did just that, by taking a large step through the material plane, which teleported him right behind them.

“Good evening” he said, causing them to jump a little, they seemed a bit agitated already he noticed.  
“Fucking heaven, Do you ever just uze your legz to walk?” They hissed at him as they spun around to face him.  
“When it’s necessary” he answered   
“It’zz like you want me to throw Hellfire at you again” they said under their breath as They brushed the last piece of dust of their clothing. They were dressed a bit different now from when he has last seen them on earth, gone was the pomp of their ceremonial sash and hat, but it wasn’t a different suit, instead they just seemed to wear less of it. They had worn the same when he had visited them in Hell he recalled, but their face wasn’t full of wounds and sores up here and their small swarm of flies were also missing. They looked remarkably human all things considered, if a bit oddly dressed in their still filthy suit. They started to walk in the direction of the Large building they had been informed of, Gabriel trailed after them.

“No trouble taking off from the office I hope?” He asked, probably a good way to engage in small talk, they could both relate to their demanding work. He wanted to make things not be too awkward between them, after all they would be working side by side for some time now.  
“There isn’t exactly anyone to question where I go[4], and Dagon can hold down the ship for a few days, paperwork will be piling up but everything won’t completely stop just because I’m gone for a short time” they said “hopefully” they added under their breath.  
“What was that?” He said  
“I asked if your people are fine with you being gone for a few days?” They said more clearly.  
“Oh well, i didn’t exactly tell them how long I was gonna be away for” he said, it didn’t sound good he realized as soon as the words came out.  
“Really?” Beelzebub asked while raising one of their dark eyebrows.  
“Neither of us are sure on how much time this endeavor will take, but I’m sure it will be a while until they’ve taken notice that I’m gone” he said.  
“Let’s hope they won’t pursue you aggressively once they do, having to dodge heaven won’t be making any of this any easier” they said with a bit of sneer as they came to a stop right by the side of of the road.

What Beelzebub spoke of, did bring some concern to his mind though. He hadn’t really considered what would happen should this task take so long that the other angels would come looking for him. At most he had thought that maybe they’d turn a blind eye to it and ignore the fact that he was gone like they had with Raziel. But now he wasn’t to sure, perhaps he should have informed Sandalphon that he was going to leave just as Beelzebub had asked their subordinate to look out for things on their behalf. Sandalphon might not be able to do his work for him but maybe he could have averted suspicion for a bit longer should the others ask him where Gabriel was. But no that wouldn’t have worked well at all, Sandalphon was a terrible liar, he wouldn’t convince Michael for a second should she ask him. But that wasn’t yet a problem, for now they had other things to attend to.

Beelzebub had, after having come to a stop for a moment by the side of the road, crossed the street towards the hotel but instead of continuing towards the entrance they turned to the right and walked until the two of them stood at an intersection right next to the hotel, to the side of the large building an alleyway lay, going past the impressive structure and coming to an end by the other side where a different road was located.

the demon was now staring intently at a metal pole situated by a flowerbed behind a short metal fence right at the corner, two signs were affixed to the metal pole, both signs carrying the names of the two streets, S Carriage Drive and Serpentine Walk the plaques read.

“So who exactly is it that we are meeting?” He asked them, Beelzebub had by then stopped staring at the pole and instead began to dig through their pockets after something.  
“A demon” they stated, not really paying that much attention to Gabriel, more preoccupied by finding whatever they were looking for.  
“I assumed as much, I wondered more of what manner of demon they are” He asked again, he was curious concerning this, he had interacted so very little with demons in his life that he wasn’t quite sure how to handle them, much less now that he was engaged in some sort of truce for the time being with some of them.

“She’s one of mine if you are wondering how trustworthy the information she’s providing is” they said, they had stopped looking through their pants pockets and had now turned their attention towards their suit jacket instead.  
“What exactly does it entail that she’s ‘one of yours’?” He asked, he was answered at first with a sigh and something mumbled under their breath that he couldn’t quite catch, was he already pushing it with the questions perhaps? No of course not, they must understand that he needed to be fully informed of their situation after all, how else were they going to successfully work together if they didn’t trust one another.

“As you mentioned yesterday I am technically royalty down there, and as royalty I do have subjects which I rule over, she is one of them” they said, speaking slowly as if he wasn’t going to understand anything otherwise. They let out a small curse after that, seeming a bit more frustrated over not finding whatever they expected to be in one of their pockets.  
“Your subject, yes good, I understand. Does that mean that she’s more trustworthy then most demons?” He wasn’t actually questioning the demon on their information. He had more wondered generally about what kind of demon it was but that didn’t seem to occur to Beelzebub.

“Yes to me at least, she can’t disobey me for instance..ah!” They interrupted themself as they finally found what they were looking for. He could see them holding a small golden coin in their hand. They took a step back from the pole and flipped the coin towards it. Suddenly a hand reached out from behind the pole, catching the coin in the air between their middle and index finger, each finger on the hand wore a different ring made out of copper, silver or plain metal, but each of the rings all held a kind of red stone that almost seemed to shine like a fire in the cold light from the lamp posts. The demon then took a step out from behind the pole, which by all accounts was in no way big enough to hide the demon completely from view behind it. 

How had he not noticed or even felt her presence he wondered, this demon must be skilled in hiding herself. Gabriel took a moment to observe this informant of Beelzebub’s a bit. They were tall, almost as tall as he himself was, generally feminine shaped with dark skin and curly hair, most of it shaved off from the sides of their head with only a thick stripe of it in the middle, which ran long enough to reach her shoulder blades. He could see shapes curled underneath the skin on the shaved sides of the demons head, almost like the horns of a ram. Otherwise they were dressed in a quite shabby manner that appeared to be typical for demons, everything looking a bit too old and worn out to be presentable. Not to mention there wasn’t much of it. Any human walking by would very likely be perplexed at how the demon could withstand the cold with so much of their upper body exposed with that flimsy thing that could barely be referred to as a shirt and the holes in their tight sitting pants[5]. The only slight attempt at looking like the temperature was in fact affecting them was a jacket made of some sort of tanned animal skin, slung casually over their shoulders. Whit so much of their upper body exposed he could even see the sizable tattoo on their skin, indicating even more to the ones who understood what it meant that the individual was In fact a demon, a stylized and sigical rendition of a ram skull, openly displayed between their collarbones in pale colors. The last thing he took notice of were a pair of glasses with dark lenses hanging around their neck by a chain, likely to hid their inhuman eyes from any mortal that should look upon them, which were milky white with a long dark pupil going from one corner of their eye to another, eyes that looked like a sheep’s. 

Their eyes in question though didn’t even seem to take notice of him at all, but were solely trained on Beelzebub in front of her.  
“Your highness” she said, with a broad smile, showing of their bovine looking teeth. She took another step out of the flower bed and then leaned into a excessive bow “I am overjoyed that you could take the time to join me this even…” she stopped talking once she straightened up from her bow and lay eyes on him standing behind them. Her eyes went from him to Beelzebub, to him again and then back. “Ehm My liege, you are aware that there’s an angel behind you right” she said pointing slightly to him.   
“Yes I am aware, I invited him here after all” they said while crossing their arms.  
“But..why?” The demon asked, looking incredibly confused.  
“In case we should run into Asmodeus and he makes the decision to make the situation more complicated than it has to be, he’s here to help with that” Beelzebub said, while staring at the taller demon, whom in fact seemed to feel all the regret a demon should feel once they questioned any decision made by Beelzebub.

“Ah..of course, that’s...eh smart choice my liege” the demon turned to Gabriel now, observing him with disbelief for a moment, before just simply accepting the situation and throwing their confusion to the wind. Reverting back to their more nonchalant demeanor, they gave him another less extravagant bow.  
“I great you angel, My name is Yan-gant-y-tan, known to the humans as the wandering demon and devil of the crossroads[6]” she said with a slight theatrical flare.  
“The Archangel Gabriel” he said back with a slight nod.  
“Oh you’re him?…” she once again looked confused towards Beelzebub, who only answered her with a glare that told her to let it go. She looked back at him then, trying desperately to appear as nonchalant as before. “I have heard quite a bit about you, you’re topside quiet often aren’t you?” They said with a nervous smile. 

Topside? What could that be referring to...oh right earth he realized after a moment, because it’s above them.   
“Not that often” he said, he wasn’t on earth much was he? just a handful of times every year, when he had the time, and if he were to disregard leisure time he on some occasions spent there, it would just be a few times every ten or so years he was down on official business.  
“Well, way more than most angels, especially of your standing” Yan-gant-y-tan said.  
“None of this is in anyway relevant, we didn’t come here to make small talk” Beelzebub said, sounding a bit exasperated. “Demon Yan-gant-y-tan, report” they said while turning their full attention on the tall demon.

“Oh yes of course my liege, ehm Must admit I haven’t been to vigilant with the deeds of the days and what not, I have been incredibly busy with looking for everyone. It’s taken up most of my time unfortunately…” she said looking apologetic “eeh no wait, I did get two addicts to stab one another to death over a bag of salt the other day” she said adopting a quite sinister smile “incredibly nasty really, the two had known one another since their school days, but with just a small push they had no hesitation to kill to get what they wanted, and even then what they were fight over wasn’t even what they thought it were” she said with a small laugh at the end.  
“I do not care for any of that” Beelzebub said while once again wearing a look of exasperation on their face, drumming their fingers lightly against their elbow as they held their arms still crossed.  
“Oh good, that was honestly the only damning thing I’ve accomplished all week” Yan-gant-y-tan said, letting out a sigh.  
“I wanted you to report on why you asked me to be here, what information is it that you wish to relay” they said, completely ignoring her interjection.  
“Certainly my liege” she said, taking a deep breath to start to give her report in proper. “So about five months ago you asked me as well as many others Who do our business directly on earth to start looking for the people of ours that have started to go missing. I have done so to the best of my ability, it has been ehh...a bit more difficult then I first imagined, but anyhow. I have been vigilant in my efforts to be on the lookout for anything that could lead me to find anyone who’s been missing, which led me to around a week and a half ago, a demon who I’m familiar with and usually operates in this area” she gestured around towards the buildings, she likely meant the general London area Gabriel guessed, he couldn’t image a lot of demonic undertakings happening in a park of all places right?

“She started to act a bit uncharacteristically, nothing really suspicious just odd in some ways. At the time I didn’t think much of it, after all she was still reporting in as normal, she wasn’t counted on the list of missing demons, and her behavior wasn’t typical of those that do disappear. But that was until yesterday day my liege, when you informed us that Asmodeus was gone. I realized then that the last time he was seen in hell and when she started to behave oddly matched up, it made a bit of sense, after all she’s a succubus which means she works directly for him, she’s high enough on the ladder to be of some importance powerwise and she’s liked by him well enough. I thought that her odd behavior might have to do with her knowing something about his disappearance. So I spent some time looking in on her closer which led me here” she gestured towards the hotel. 

“She put a lot of effort to get inside here, on a very specific event nonetheless. I know her usually tastes when it comes to humans, she usually goes for married virtuous men, and let me tell you there are barely any virtuous men in that building, even less that are already married. And the guy she’s on the arm of for the event is as far away from that as one can come.” She said turning back to look at the two of them. “My guess is that she’s here for a very specific reason, which has to do with the event inside, she would not have put that amount of effort in such a short time if it was just that she wanted inside. It could have something to do with Asmodeus, but even if it isn’t, chances are quite high that she knows something about him, so I contacted you my liege, so you could get a hold of her and get the information you need out of her” she finished with a pleased smile on her face, in no doubt she must feel proud of her accomplishments in that moment.

“You could not subdue that demon and bring her to hell for interrogations yourself” Gabriel asked. A bit tardy really, to request your superior to come and chase a lead she wasn’t even hundred percent sure was acurett in the first place.  
“It eh...there could be others there perhaps, if she’s working with Asmodeus on something there might be others of those missing working with them as well, he’s powerful enough that he could probably sway more than a few to his side…” she was very obviously embarrassed looking to the ground as she spoke “...also she outranks me and could very easily beat me should I try subdue her” she said more quietly while still looking to the ground “besides, she knows me, which means I’m not gonna be able to surprise her with much” 

“Quite, both of you” Beelzebub said with a hand wave towards the two of them. They had been in thought since Yan-gant-y-tan had finished her rapport, but now it appeared that they had come to a decision. “It’s a good lead, one worth pursuing” they said with a slight nod, they then turned to walk down the ally way towards the main entrance of the hotel.  
“My liege wait!” Yan-gant-y-tan yelled out after them. Causing Beelzebub to turn around and giving the tall demon an accusatory look. “Where are you going?” Yan-gant-y-tan asked.  
“To collect the demon we are suspecting” they said matter of fact.  
“Dressed like that?” She asked with sincere confusion.

Beelzebub looked down on their well worn dark suit for a moment before looking back up towards the two of them.  
“Is there a problem with the way I’m dressed?” They asked. Looking a bit offended, but also annoyed, mostly annoyed in fact.  
“No” Yan-gant-y-tan said in a nervous tone.  
“No” Gabriel concurred himself at the same time  
“There’s nothing wrong per say” she continued.  
“Your clothing fits you very well, they make you look quite attractive” he said right after her. His comment made both demons stop whatever they thought and look at him in disbelief. 

Strange, Gabriel thought. He was just stating a fact. Beelzebub obviously dressed in a way they believed suited them, and there were parts of their appearance that were attractive from a very objective standpoint in Gabriel’s opinion. Said attractive parts were well enhanced enough by their choice of attire, at least when certain ridiculous head pieces were discarded.  

The small moment of confusion from the demons end were broken when Yan-gant-y-tan continued to speak as if he hadn’t uttered what he had just said  
“I’m just saying it’s a very large event, you just walking in would make them take notice of you” she said.  
“No human will ‘take notice’ of me or Gabriel unless I let them”  Beelzebub answered While staring intently on the other demon, very distinctly not looking at him, maybe it was just a trick of the poor light of the evening but Gabriel could swear he saw some sort of color to their cheeks, he did not know what that entailed for demons though, another sign of exasperation perhaps. 

“Of course not my liege, but it's not the humans that concerns me, any whom are not humans would notice you, especially if you were to walk in and make an effort to go undetected by every set of mortal eyes in there, that would take incredible power, that I’m not saying you are incapable of exuding that but that it would be very difficult for them to miss feeling the presence of that type of power” Yan-gant-y-tan said, it appeared that they were very nervous simply by being in Beelzebub’s presence, must make things difficult with work if your subordinates were all afraid of you he wondered, perhaps he could ask them about it later. His thoughts were interrupted by Yan-gant-y-tan continuing to speak.  
“Whatever task it is that she’s here to perform, it must be of some importance, which means they have put thought it to this endeavor and likely have an escape route planned should things go bad for them. You walking into that building exerting a lot of power would in all likelihood make them run for their lives before you even enter the event hall” she said.  
“So what are you suggesting that we do?” Beelzebub asked.  
“Well I’m not saying your plan is bad my liege I’d never imply that you…”  
“Yes yes, spare the squabbling for when I’m in a actually bad mood, now what do you think would be a better idea” they said interrupting her talking.  
“Ah, I had in mind that we’d try my usual approach, with that we would blend in with the humans, it’s a lot of people present in there, a fundraiser of sort so not to many people know one another to well, they won’t take notice to much if we just act discreet enough. That way we’d be able to get inside without having to exert much power and then we can continue to blend in until we locate her properly and make sure she can’t run before we subdue her” Yan-gant-y-tan explained. 

“Sound good enough, humans are very easily fooled after all it should be no problem” he said, feeling self confident, He had on many occasions been incredibly successful at blending in amongst humans, most of the time when he checked up on any of the earth side operatives. He saw Beelzebub cast a small glance towards him before looking back at Yan-gant-y-tan.   
“I guess it’s worth a shot, better to be more cautious if we want to make sure we will get any new information out of this” they said “but you are saying my attire is not suitable for this ‘event’?”  
“Oh not necessarily my liege, it’s just that it’s mostly a bunch of old rich conservative men in there and if they see anything vaguely woman shaped in anything but a skirt it will attract their attention, which is exactly what we are trying to avoid after all” she answered.  
“Fine” Beelzebub scoffed and made a gesture towards themself while looking at the other demon. “Give me something that will fit better then”  
“My liege? You want me to..?”  
“I’m not exactly well informed about current Human fashions and such so just change it into something that will work better” they said with a exasperated tone.  
“Oh! Oh alright!” Yan-gant-y-tan exclaimed, “just give me a second” she said and then Reached into the her jacket, pulling out a black notebook with letters scribbled all over the cover in white ink. It looked a bit too big to be carried in any inner pocket. The lower demon began to flip through the pages of it. Gabriel could only see some of its content but he did catch a glimpse of what seemed to be a drawn up maze and a crossword puzzle. Finally she reached what she was looking for within it, which appeared to be clippings of images featured in different types of magazines. 

“Right this one should work” she said, snapping her fingers in front of Beelzebub. Changing their clothing in an instant from their well worn suit into a dark sleek dress. It was quite modest all things considered, it had a high neck and long sleeves with the skirt ending about mid calf on them. It was mostly black with only a red piece of fabric which reminded him of their ceremonial sash, placed over their upper body and falling into a cape like part over their shoulder, otherwise there were only some small golden accents such as the buckle of the belt at their waist and a few brooches on the red part which looked like small flies. Very Fitting for them indeed. Their hair was also a bit cleaner and combed then it had been before, it looked almost like it had been when he had seen them in heaven earlier. To be quite honest they looked beautiful in his eyes, something he certainly didn't expect to be thinking at any occasion when he first came down here to meet them. There wasn’t really any signs of their demonic nature to them at all, in fact if he didn’t already know they were one of the most powerful demons to exist he would have assumed they were just another human, a human dressed in a very beautiful dress that enhanced their appearance very well.

They didn’t notice his obvious staring instead they seemed a bit perplexed at the high heeled shoes their subordinate had given them with the outfit. He was broken out of his thoughts by Yan-gant-y-tan addressing him instead.  
“I’d offer to fix one up for you as well but I’m quite sure my abilities don’t really work on you” she said, Gabriel looked away from Beelzebub then towards the other demon, she had also changed her attire he noticed. She was dressed in a black and pink get up with a flared skirt, showing of a bit of leg. The dress was covering up the large demonic sigil tattooed onto her chest, her hair looked more styled and he could swear that she was a bit shorter as well. The glasses that had previously been hanging around her neck were now perched on her nose instead, but while the lenses now appeared clear her eyes looked completely human.   
“i can manage quite fine on my own” he said. He had amassed many suits after all over the years that he could pick and choose from, but still “was there a specific dress code for the event?” He asked just to make sure.

“Let me check” she said and flipped through her notebook again, until she came to a page where she had stored a small envelope between the pages. She opened it and skimmed over the contents, “it says black tie which isn’t exactly very specific I guess, well maybe for you if your not going to go for these types of clothes” she said gesturing slightly towards her own and Beelzebub’s skirts.  
“That will be fine, I understand it” He said and snapped his own fingers, not that he needed to but it felt appropriate in the company he had. He switched his light gray coat, turtleneck and scarf for a dark suit with just a hint of purple accents. It was a copy of one he did physically own but as much as he would have liked to wear the real deal it was still stored in his office with the rest of his clothing, so changing his current attire to look just like it would have to do. He could feel Beelzebub’s eyes linger on him for a moment again. He catched them momentarily before they quickly looked away, they were wearing some color to their cheeks again. Strange he thought, but he was prevented from thinking more on it by their third party speaking again.  
“Here by the way” Yan-gant-y-tan said reaching the envelope over towards him.   
“For me?” He asked   
“Yeah, I stole it from one of the other gustes earlier today, you give it over to the guy at the door he’ll likely let you in without much trouble, means you won’t have to use any power to convince him” she said.

“You won’t have need of it?” He asked  
“Well I was going to use it originally but I can talk myself inside without much trouble, you two on the other hand” she looked briefly towards Beelzebub. “No offense but you haven’t really dealt with humans as often as I do on a regular basis”   
“None taken” Beelzebub said while crossing their arms again.  
He opened the envelope that Yan-gant-y-tan had given them and glanced over the card inside it, it was addressed to a Gabriel Angel + one.  
“Did you put my name on it?” He asked, angel as a last name really, they weren’t exactly full of creativity theses demons.  
“Yeah I thought it would make it easier, means you don’t have to memorize a new name” Yan-gant-y-tan said while placing her notebook inside a bag she had summoned forth that seemed way to small to fit anything of that side. She then threw a small clutch made of red fabric to match the accents on their dress towards Beelzebub, very fitting he thought, she might not be creative but she could put together an outfit quite competently. “By the by my liege, it’s probably for the best if you say you’re his wife once you get there”

“His wife?” Beelzebub blurted out, sounding surprised, and just a smudge flustered “why ever would I want to do that”  
“Well it’s not about wanting, more about what will work for the best, the invitation includes a plus one so he can bring a date, bringing someone who’s his wife would invite less interest or questions. If your not his wife who are you to him, a girlfriend? A mistress? How long have you known one another in that case if the two of you are close enough for him to bring you to such a prestigious event such as this but you aren’t married? Is he actually married but to someone else? That’s something they will very likely assume for someone who looks his age. But if your just his wife, easy, done, not interesting to know any gossip concerning that, after all the majority of the people in there are married.” She said and closed her small bag, dropping it to hang by her shoulder “hence wife is better for going by undetected, and it’s only if any human asks, it’s to invite less questions”

While very convincing, it didn’t seem like something Beelzebub was enjoying the prospect of.   
“But he has to be the one holding the invitation?” Beelzebub asked.  
“Well these humans are largely patriarchal, and out of all of us he’s the one who looks the most like a human man, besides he’s been here more often than you, I think he has a bit more experience with dealing with humans, right?” She asked him.  
“Oh yes, I am very skilled in how they operate” Gabriel said with a big smile, “I am very familiar with all their social cues and idioms and such” he said, glancing a bit towards Beelzebub, giving them a slight wink, he got this. No need for them to worry at all.  
“Great” Yan-gant-y-tan said while clapping her hands together a bit, her many rings of her right hand seemed to have changed in extravaganza with her new attire, still with the almost glowing red stones. “let’s get a move on then” she finished and began to walk down the alley.   


Gabriel followed suit with Beelzebub falling into his pace beside him behind Yan-gant-y-tan. “I forgot to ask!” Beelzebub yelled towards the other demon once she was out of The ally beside the other road. “Who is the demon we are looking for”  
“Ah yeah I forgot to mention that right, my bad, it’s Lamia my liege!” She yelled back as she turned to walk towards the main entrance of the hotel.

Gabriel could hear Beelzebub grumbled a bit under their breath at that. “Great, more fucking snakes to deal with” he could hear them faintly say once the two of them also were by the road. Gabriel then felt a hand by his arm, he looked to his side to see Beelzebub holding onto his arm. They noticed his eyes on them.  
“What? We are supposed to look like a couple aren’t we?” They said, while not meeting his eyes, they seemed a bit embarrassed by this. He Wonder why, it wasn’t like demons possessed any shame in their bodies right. He didn’t say anything but bent his arm so it looked more proper for Beelzebub to hold on to him in that manner. 

Getting inside the actual building didn’t present any trouble whatsoever. Before long all three of them were out of the cold night and inside the overly luxurious building. It reminded Gabriel a bit of how heaven had once looked like, before it’s sleek and hyper modern design of the present, when it truly had looked like the castle of god that the humans of the past had imagined as the absolute height of human architecture. It was all hight pillars, Gleaming gold accents as well as polished marble. Yan-gant-y-tan came to a stop as soon as they were all inside.

“I’ll take a brief look at the exits, you two go on ahead” she said before disappearing behind one of the marble pillars of the lobby. Right then, finding their way inside. Gabriel looked about to see if there were any signs or so to indicate where they should be heading. After a moment he felt a tap at his shoulder from Beelzebub, they pointed towards a sign a bit further inside past the many elevators of the lobby. 

‘ **For The Further Betterment Of The World’** the sign said in flashy gold printed letters accompanied by a arrow pointing the way. Gabriel took a quick glance at the invitation  Yan-gant-y-tan had given him.

‘You  Gabriel Angel + one  are cordially invited to the Fundraiser  **For The Further Betterment Of The World** organized by Lord Wildphrey …’ read part of the invitation. That must be the way, the two of them walk towards the sign without any human as much as batting an eye at their presence. Past the sign they found themselves alone in a corridor for a moment.

Gabriel glanced over towards Beelzebub, who was still holding onto his arm. They looked, a bit bothered by something, Gabriel couldn’t tell what though.  
“You look very beautiful in that dress” he said after a moment alone in the silence of the corridor. Trying to lighten their mood a little, wouldn’t do for them to walk inside looking like something rained on their cortege.  
“You mean to say I look beautiful when I’m clean or something?” They scoffed back at him, but still very pointedly not meeting his eyes and staring at the floor as they walked together.  
“Not really what I meant, it’s a pretty dress, it suits you well and brings forth certain attractive attributes you posses, I thought you’d like to know that” he said very matter of fact, because to him it was, it simply was a objective fact that they looked attractive in their current attire. He thought so, therefore it was a undisputed fact. “But being more clean also helps” he said, he heard Beelzebub grumble a bit to themself, it had a distinct buzzing sound he noticed even if he couldn’t make out what they said. “It’s easier to see you properly when your not covered in grime” he finished his thought. It did cause Beelzebub to stop with their slightly angry mumblings. 

“Why would you even say such things” they said, they seemed embarrassed now, perhaps they were just very unused to receiving compliments. That was probably it, no doubt demons had poor eyesight and couldn’t tell that Beelzebub had attractive qualities and therefore no one had told them about it before. Gabriel thought to himself, good that he was here now then so they will be informed about the fact properly.  
“You seem a bit tense, I thought a complement might be good to lighten your mood a bit” he said.  
“I’m not tense” they said, more in their usual annoyed tone.  
“Sure you are” He said, it was very noticeable, “is it about the wife thing?” He asked.  
“No!” They answered very quickly, quite obvious indication that it was.  
“Does it bother you to pretend we’re married for the evening?” He asked them again.  
“No, it doesn’t bother me, as Yan-gant explained it’s simply an easy way for us to avoid attention, if anything I could be bothered by it is that I will have to hang of an angel for the evening to show that we’re supposed to be here together” they answered, the fact that they had grabbed a hold of him by their own free will and had yet to let go of the quite intimate display didn’t really seem to account for any discomfort though. Strange really, were all demons as contradictory as Beelzebub he wondered.

“It’s just until we find this Lamia, doesn’t have to be the entire evening, it’s just for show to the humans that we will pretend to be each others wives” he said, surely they could find one demon fast. Beelzebub didn’t answer, they continued to walk for a moment until.  
“Husband” They said  
“What’s that?” He asked them.  
“To the humans you’d appear to be my husband” they said.  
“Really?” He asked, feeling very confused.  
“Well yeah, they perceive you to be a human man, so I’d look like your wife and you’d be my husband” they said “...to them that is, you’d look like that to the humans” they added.  
“I know what they see me as, that’s not it...there’s a different word for it when it’s a man?” He asked, he was quite aware of how he presented himself in human form, it had mostly to do with what would give the impression of authority, in a lot of human history what indicated authority was male and a bit older, he’d gotten so used to looking that way that he had no real thought of if he even had an interest in presenting in any other way really, seems like a bit of a hassle and he’d have to re tailor all his suits should he choose to change his mortal form. 

But about this he honestly felt a bit dumbfounded, he had no clue to why humans had such a distinction of all things. If you were a married person, that wouldn’t be any different depending on whatever gender one might possess, right?  
“Yes” They said   
“Huh, seems a bit excessive of them, it’s the same thing right, a person that’s married, why need more words then one” he said, humans really were odd.  
“I don’t know why they do it, you honestly didn’t know?” They asked.  
“No, I mean I’ve only ever spoken to one human about marriage and Mary kept on talking about how she was going to be someone’s wife soon, I just thought that’s what it was called when you were married” he said, by that point of their conversation they had rounded a corner and come in sight of a large and grandiose entrance, a human wearing a suit with a bow tie was standing at the side of it by a podium looking downwards, he seems very enticed with whatever was on top of the podium as he didn’t take a notice of them.

As soon as they approached though he quickly looked up, Trying very much to not look like he hadn't been distracted.  
“Oh good evening, May I be of any assistance” he said, sounding a bit nervous.  
“Yes” Gabriel said, putting on his widest smile “we are here for the party” he continued on.  
“I see” he said looking down to his podium again. The faint light of a screen lighting up as he started the device “a bit late are we?” He said in an attempt at small talk.

“Traffic” Beelzebub said in an incredibly deadpan tone, it did catch the man’s attention though, he stared at them seemingly awaiting for them to go on. “It was Horrific” they said, sounding a bit stiff. Attempting to fit in amongst humans must probably be incredibly foreign to them, likely why they seemed so unsure of how to speak to them. 

But that was apparently enough of an explanation as any and the man at the podium looked back down towards his tiny screen.  
“I’m sorry to hear that, but all will be well, dinner hasn’t started quite yet so your in luck, Lord Wildphrey really didn't want to hold his speech after dinner but rumor has it that he’s not quite finished with it yet” he said “Ah there we are” he looked back to the two of them “now I’ll just need your names and I’ll inform you of your seats” 

That had not been what he should have said, Gabriel wondered what he was on about. Wasn’t he supposed to ask about the invitation? Yan-Gant had said that he’d just need to show it of to get inside.  
“I have my invitation right here” Gabriel said holding it up in front of the man.  
“Oh that really won’t be necessary sir, you just give me your name and I’ll search for it here and I’ll get the number of your table…” he was interrupted by Gabriel dropping the paper in front of him on top of the screen in his podium. “...right” he just said and sighed slightly as he opened up the envelope.

There All should be right as rain now, he had done just as the demon had told him to and she did seem to be very familiar with these kinds of events. They would be inside in no time  
“Well that’s strange” the man said looking over the invitation and then back to his screen “your name is not listed in the app sir?” He said with a furrowed forehead. 

That was not good, that’s the kind of face a human made when something was wrong. He suddenly felt Beelzebub’s gripp on his arm tighten, he looked down towards them and saw their eyes had gone from their normal very human looking blue to red. If looks could kill, and Gabriel wasn’t to sure if demonic glares actually could do that or not, then the man at the podium was going to be very dead soon. He had to think of something quickly, they couldn’t just start killing people left and right to get a head on their mission, killing humans should be the third option at the very least.

Gabriel let out a slight laugh, mainly to make sure the man wouldn’t take notice of the now strange eyes on the person at his side.  
“Technology, must be some kind of glitch or mix up perhaps” he said still smiling as broadly as he could, he had on good authority that his smile was one of the best, he had made sure to pick the best one out of all humans that had yet existed. “Could be because we responded that we were able to come so late, someone might have been forgotten to enter our names, ain’t that embarrassing honey, their tech is failing on them” He said, while giving a smile towards Beelzebub.

They didn’t respond but it was distracting them from their previous murderous intentions. It did also have the intended effect in the man by the door though. He looked quite embarrassed at the idea that the staff he obviously was a part of might have made a mistake.   
“Ah of course. I apologize, to be quite honest I’m not too used to this new technology that their bringin in these days, miss the days I just had a paper and pen to check the names of on…” he said sounding very nervous again “I...I’m sure you’re supposed to be at one of the less seated tables then, I’ll just put it in later… eh let’s see” he looked at the screen again, “table 22 only has one couple at it so I’m sure you’ll fit there” he said.  
“No need to worry, I’m sure it’s not your fault that thing got messed up with registering us” Gabriel said, “let’s get going honey” he said and walked inside the venue hall, Beelzebub only grumbling slightly in response.

The venue hall was incredibly decked out in decorations, especially a ridiculous amount of flowers everywhere, it was deckadent and expensive looking in every way of the word, especially when one took a look at the people inside it milling about across the two decorated floors of the venue.  
“I wonder if this whole bloody thing is to better the part of the world they stole half the greenery from” Beelzebub said at his side in a sarcastic tone. It was indeed quite gaudy for an event that intended to be cheeretable of all things. But he was not here to judge the morality of these people. 

“So this demon..Lamia, what does she look like?” He asked as they continued to walk through the crowd of people, that all were way to preoccupied with their own selves to take any real notice of them yet.   
“I don’t know, she’s a Succubi, she will most likely take one whatever characteristics that are appealing to the human she’s working at the moment” they said, sounding a bit annoyed.  
“So she can change her appearance is what your saying?” He asked.  
“Sort of, some lust demons are better at it then others, but she will not appear obviously demonic at a first glance, maybe you won’t even notice it right away” they answered.  
“Does she not possess some pervasive attributes, something from the form she usually reverts to that tends to stick around?” That tended to be the case with angels at least, they usually become slightly attached to some parts of their human appearance that they choose, it’s just comfort really, like how Michael always keeps her hair brown, or how he likes to be tall.

“The form she ‘reverts to’ is a giant snake like creature with pale scales so I don’t think that would help” they muttered.  
“So she doesn’t have a human appearance that’s typically for her then?” He asked, that seemed unlikely, not even angels had the energy and time to make up entirely new body’s for every occasion, from what little he knew about how demons choose their faces he had the slightest notion that they didn’t have an as wide variety of choice that he and his colleagues possessed.  
“Of course she does, we all do, but my point is even if she has a typical way of looking I highly doubt she’s looking like that right now” they said more firmly.  
“It can’t hurt for me to know” he said, really anything could be better than nothing when they were looking for someone after all.  
“Gah fine, above medium height, mostly feminine, pale, white slightly thin hair” they listed out. “Her gums and lips are black normally as well”

“She has a mark of the fallen right” Gabriel remembered seeing it on Yan-Gant, that serpent demon he had seen briefly on the air field also had one on his face As well “You lot can’t change those, that could be useful in finding her right?”   
“Which is just why I believe she’s covering it up, a tattoo across your throat is probably very eye catching, especially in this crowd” they said.  
“So she’s likely in a dress that’s covering her neck then, that’s something to go on” he stated, a lot of the female guests here seemed to enjoy showing of their cleavage so finding someone dressed in a more covered fashion would likely not be hard.  
“Yes...that is something, I hadn’t really considered that” Beelzebub said, sounding a bit surprised that he’d reached a conclusion that hadn’t occurred to them. They were soon at their table Gabriel realized then. He started taking a look around, observing the women and how they were dress.

“In case I catch a glimpse of it, what does her mark look like?” He asked.  
“It’s two snakes in a circle, fucking and eating each other at the same time” they said.  
“Oh alright” he said as they reached their table.

* * *

 

[1] Gabriel of course doesn't know much about how his brother was, behaved or even looked like these days, but he think he does by virtue that there were a lot of things he simply believed to know, even when he knew next to nothing about these things in reality.

[2] most of these excuses could be summed up as different variations of knowing thy enemy, which heaven wouldn’t object to. The process of Getting to know the enemy on the other hand wasn’t a to popular idea in heaven these days

[3] even with how blunt Gabriel is on most things it was not lost on him how incredibly ironic describing Beelzebub as god sent was.

[4] not actually as one might guess that out of fear no one dared question what Beelzebub did or whent, but because the times Beelzebub was not in hell were so rare and far between that the notion that they were not in hell would sound completely absurd to most demons.

[5] Gabriel couldn’t for the life of him figure out if said holes were a sort of fashion statement or just something that had occurred with time passing as most demons didn’t exactly appear to take well care of their clothing. He did know that there was some sort of fashion which did involve having holes in ones clothing on purpose, because he did know a fair bit about human fashion even if he would deny it, but that didn’t mean he understood it, that anyone would want to destroy the fine fabric of perfectly suitable pants was incomprehensible to him.

[6] a devil of the crossroads is as the name would imply a demon one summons and/or talks to at an intersection of some kind, Yan-gant-y-tan is one of a few dussin demons with just that denomination, wandering the earth often to be summoned to make a deal of some sort concerning a humans immortal soul. If you’d ever thought that you perhaps meet  **The Devil** one lonely night at a crossroad and said devil challenged you to say a game of chess, dice, cards, to solve a puzzle of some sort or even perhaps a particularly advanced game of sudoku over your immortal soul. Chances are quite high that you in fact meet Yan-gant-y-tan, that is for two reasons, first and foremost, Yan-gant-y-tan is a big fan of games and puzzles, way more than your average demon, natural they cheat most of the time but if she were to be honest her favorite outcome are always when the human she’s challenged are driven to madness in their attempts to win. Such displays are always most enjoyed in her opinion when there is in fact a fair chance that the human could come away scot free, even if the madness wouldn’t necessarily mean she’d get the soul she was gambling for. And second, if you ever truly met  **The Devil** , you would have no doubt about the fact that you met  **The Devil** .

~

It isn’t actually to difficult to go by unnoticed in a crowd if you were simply aware of what type of crowd that is. It is for instance remarkably simple to not be observed in a room full of the rich, powerful and influential, if you were dressed as a servant.

Most rich people don’t like to look at servants, they’d rather pretend that the people in white and black dress suits provided for them by the catering firm they worked for, were nothing more then elaborate furniture fixtures that just happened to move, if one of them should be close by to provide drinks when needed then that was just swell, otherwise if nothing was needed from them, they might as well just not exist, after all they didn’t exist in their extravagant world and that’s just like not existing to them at all.

As such not one guest took any particular notice of the young man[1] with rat colored curly hair that walked among them, if any of them had they would likely be startled at his slightly odd appearance, like his too large black pupils and slightly too long front teeth just to mention some of them. 

They also didn’t take notice to the movement underneath his clothes by something shifting around, and squeaking on occasion. Nor did they take notice when the young man would steal small pieces of food that either he or one of his apparent colleagues were carrying around, and feed it to whatever small animal was running around across his body underneath his clothes.

Not even Gabriel or Beelzebub took notices of him as they passed him by, even when he so abruptly sized in motion for a moment as he heard Beelzebub speak just as they were passing by behind him. He stood completely still, not even daring to breath as he heard the very familiar voice continue to talk to whoever it was that was joining them. Not until he was completely sure they couldn’t see him having their backs turns towards him, did he start to almost run, doing his best to duck and jump out of the way still balancing his tray of champagne on one hand. He was remarkably good at weaseling his way around people but he did still keep one of his eyes cast towards the direction he had seen Lord Beelzebub walking towards.

As such he did not take a too close of a look and just as he began to take rapid steps up the stairs to the second floor of the venue he collided hard with an unassuming guest, spilling all of the alcoholic contents of his tray over the unsuspecting man.

“What in gods name do you think your doing!” The overdressed slightly older man yelled at him. The yelling was bad was his first thought, yelling would attract attention, he had to be quick, they couldn’t see him here, he’d be dead, so very dead, run, he had to run and find the others.  
“Apologies but I’m in a bit of a hurry sir” he said, while unceremoniously dropping his tray to the floor. He breezed past the still aggravated man continuing his not quite a run[2]  
“No you listen here! Do you have any clue to how much this suit cost?! More than you’d ever achieve making in a year I tell you! And you have ruined it beyond repair… are you listening to me?!” The man continued to yell as he followed after him up the stairs.  
“Not really no” he answered, annoying human, really just the most annoying type of all humans, he did not have time for this.   
“Oh I have never! I will be having a sterne word with your boss I tell you, you will rue the day that you..” by then he had stopped listening as he reached the top of the stairs, the man was annoyingly still following him. He picked up his pace and managed to round one of the buffet tables containing almost all the types of small finger foods in the world. He was quick about it, so quick that no human even saw a thing, even the one hounding after him missed it in a blink. He lifted the tablet cloth and stopped for a moment making the effort to look human. His body shrank down into his true mortal form and ran in under the table on quick small rodent feet. 

He was a lot faster in that form and passed by even less noticed. It also helped shake the human of him, hopeful, and by the grace of all that he might even believe in he hoped that lord Beelzebub hadn’t taken a notice of his small exertion of power. Probably not likely right, he was so small and far down the ladder, his existence didn’t just naturally register to them right? Right? His thought kept on running as his tiny feet did the same until he finally reached the table he was looking for. 

He ran in under the table cloth and re took his human shape as quickly as he had slipped out of it. He crawled out from under the table and turned towards its only occupant.

An older man[3] tall with broad shoulders and back slicked hair with a matiching beard was sitting at the table. He wasn’t eating or even touching anything on it, not even his water glas. The humans didn’t think about him much, that was by his own design, he had no real care to look at them so they did not look at him.

“Oh Orphie we’re in big trouble” the young man said as soon as he got back on his feat.  
“What do you mean?” He asked, the humans had not noticed anything was off, not with any of them, the plan was going along smoothly so far.  
“We’ve been found out, that’s what I mean.” He said, one of his hands had by that point gone to his mouth where he had began to gnaw at his long and sharp nails with his equally abnormal teeth.   
“By whom exactly” he said narrowing his eyes towards the man next to him.  
“By downstairs… i don’t know how but they're here, THEY are here, we are a screwed Orphie. This entire thing is going to shit” he was acting twitchy, looking over his shoulder, eyeing every human with suspicion in his dark eyes, all while still biting on his long black nails.  
“I’m assuming by ‘They’ you are referring to someone important” he said with a sigh as he observed the twitchy demon at his side “and not just some random human, that saw you feeding that thing”

“I’m sorry, I get hungry alright, I’ve done nothing more but wait around all day around copious amount of food and I can’t help it” he said seeming a bit aggravated that the older man wasn’t freaking out just as much “and yes, it’s Lord Beelzebub, they're here, at first I just thought it was someone that sounded remarkably like them, but i felt it, their full power, oh Orphie I knew this was gonna end bad..”  
“Quite” he interrupted them, this was bad. His companion would recognize the demon Lord without problem he knew that, he had no reason to doubt that, but why were they personally here? How had they caught a wind of the operation even? Why hadn’t he noticed them coming in here right away? “Did they see you?” He asked them.  
“No...no I don’t think so, I mean I was making attention slide of me so they probably should have but they seemed distracted by talking…” he said looking towards the railing of the balcony that opened up towards the the bottom floor he had come from, where the demon lord still likely were.   
“Talking to who? Another demon?” He asked, one demon he wasn’t already aware was going to be here slipping past his notice was one thing but two.  
“No, not from what I could tell, he didn’t sound like anyone I know of”   
“Never mind that then” he said with a wave of his hand “what were they talking about?”  
“Ehe Lamia i think, it sounded like it was her they were describing” he said “do you think their only here to find her perhaps?”   
“Maybe, if they didn’t notice you then it’s possible they are only looking for her” it was their best bet, but that still left a very tangible fact left “we have to get out of here” he stated, the operation was compromised, they had to go for plan B from now on.  
“Right, yes of course you’re right” he said looking relieved, he then noticed a curious thing as he looked at the table again “Orphie where is the watcher?” He asked looking at him confused.  
“What?”  
“The Gregori, he...she?...they were sitting here at the table with you?”  
“Right that one” he said, there had been another angel at the table, he hadn’t really thought on them much.  
“But where are they now?”   
“I don’t know, they must have wondered off somewhere” must have been a while ago now that he thought on it.  
“What do you mean you don’t know? You were sitting here the whole time, you literally had nothing else to do?” He was looking dumbfounded at him.

“That’s neither here nor there, nor is it important” he said as he stood up “now you go looking for the Gregori and I’ll go find the witch, and then we can get out of here quickly”   
“Alright, but…”  
“We really don’t have time to talk about this anymore” he said beginning to look around.  
“No no, I get that, it’s just what shall we do with Lamia, it’s not gonna be that hard for them to find her…” His words were interrupted again.  
“Well unfortunately it seems we are gonna have to let them do that” he said as he turned his around and began walking away from the table.  
“Right, okey...but can’t I just…”   
“The watcher Nybbas” he said over his shoulder  
“Yes” that Promptly shut Nybbas up and he began to do what he was told finally.

Orphaniel began to pick up his pace, now where did that human thing go he wondered as he started to look for the witch

* * *

[1] this is of course only what he sort of appears to be, as he was neither young or a man for that matter.

[2] running would attract to much attention, so it was more akin to a slight jog.

[3] similar to the “young man” he only wore the appearance of a man, but most would probably say that having existed since before the earth would classify him as quite old.

~~

Beelzebub and Gabriel had just reached their table when Gabriel felt the presence of a human walking up behind him.  
“You two must be our table mates, I was just wondering if you were ever gonna show up” a man with a broad American accent spoke up behind them. He also felt a slight pat on his shoulder as the human walked around to face them as he continued talking “my wife was growing so bored with just sitting around waiting with no company but me so she abandoned ship a while ago to go chat up some of our friends” 

The man had a very broad smile bordering on the genuine, there was also something slightly familiar with him Gabriel thought.   
“Ah but I shouldn’t go on just talking without an Introduction” the American man said, he reached his hand forward to Gabriel “Thaddeus Dowling lovely to meet you” he said.

That name, also familiar, he thought.  
“Gabriel” he said in response “Angel” he remembered to add as he took the human man’s outstretched hand for a moment, last names, those were important, he had to remember that.  
“I’m assuming this is your wife then” Thaddeus said turing his eyes towards Beelzebub,   
“Yes, you are correct” they said very stiffly, the man continued to look at Beelzebub, their name Gabriel realized, he expected them to tell him their name. 

“Very observant of you this is indeed my wife. Who’s name is Bee…” Gabriel felt his mind draw a blank, he could not for life of him come up with a name. He could tell you any name of any of heavens many angels, but none that he could think of that wouldn't sound slightly strange to human ears, well perhaps there were some, but none that would fit Beelzebub. Luckily for both him and Beelzebub Thaddeus was more helpful then first expected with that.  
“Beatrice? You really look like a Beatrice I feel” he said while resting his finger under his chin in a thinking pose.   
“Yes, you have guessed correctly, Beatrice, that is my human female name...which I have… because I am one” they said, still not seeming Able to relax fully Gabriel noted.  
“Well, I have always been good with my hunches” he said, a bit to busy being pleased with himself to take notice of Beelzebub’s stiff way of speaking “having a good ability to read people is very useful in my line of work, but say I notice you have a bit of an non colloquial accent like myself, what parts are you from then Gabe?” He asked Turning his attention towards Gabriel again.

“I’m sorry what?” Gabriel wasn’t really following at that point.  
“From the states? Which one are you from?”  
“you think I’m from a state?” He asked, trying to comb his brain for any name of any possible city from that part of the world. He had been jogging there for months now.  
“He’s not from there anymore” Beelzebub spoke up from his side, where they were still holding onto him. “He livezz here now” they continue.  
“Ah moved here for love I see?” Thaddeus said with an arched eyebrow towards Gabriel. Could he referring to the fact that the English Beelzebub spoke was of a different accent then his.  
“Sure, right again, you’re quite prophetic with your guesses young man” Gabriel said, was he young? He really couldn’t tell with humans sometimes, angels never really changed appearance wise thanks to time passing so he always had hard to really garner the age of humans most of the time. 

Thaddeus just laughed at him,   
“Your quite funny Gabe, come let me introduce you both to my wife, she’ll be overjoyed to have some new company” he said waving to them to follow him.   
“You two go on ahead, I need to make use of the lavatories” Beelzebub said.  
“Is that wise?” Gabriel asked them, would they be alright navigating human conventions without him.  
“We can cover more ground a part, I’ll find you easily later” they said already walking away from him. Gabriel really couldn't object to their reasoning, following with this overly friendly human would probably be a good plan to actually get in contact with and maybe ask more humans if they had seen anyone with Lamia’s description.  
“She seems lovely, your wife” Thaddeus continued on talking to him, though Gabriel guesses the man was only half listening to anything anyone else said.  
“Their one of a kind truly” Gabriel said.  
“They're a bit odd you know the brits, got all those different words for things even though we speak the same language, what was it she called it? A lavatory?” Thaddeus spoke as he walked across the crowded ball room “you never really consider it before you start living here but their a lot more different then one might first guess, you know my wife used to complain about it all the time when we first moved here” Thaddeus continued on, it was human small talk if Gabriel were to make a guess. “She’s gotten well used to it by now though I promise” he said with a wink that Gabriel could not really understand the purpose of, he did know though that he was expected to answer in a slightly bantering way.

“Did it take time for you to accumulate to this surrounding societal environment as well?” Gabriel asked.  
“Oh ehm..well I..” the question seemed to make the human uncomfortable and he was perhaps unconsciously picking up speed towards his destination. “Ah here we are” he said changing the subject. The two of them were approaching a table that had a large group of people not only sitting by it but standing beside it as well. Most of the humans were talking to one another but Gabriel did manage to pick out one voice out of them that was striking some cord of suspicion in him, he didn’t know how or why but some part of it didn’t sound completely human.

“And your son then? He’s not accompanying you this evening?” The suspicious voice asked.  
“Oh goodness no, he would be incredibly impolite in this company, he’d likely just stare at his phone the whole evening, besides this isn’t really a affair for a child to be present at” an unfamiliar feminin voice answered the suspicious one.   
“Why not? It’s only a dinner and some old man holding a long speech? Not exactly anything unfriendly towards children?” The suspicious voice asked again, sounding very confused.  

By that time both Gabriel and Thaddeus had come in close enough to see the two apparent women speaking to one another. The feminine voice appeared to belong to a brown haired woman dressed in a champagne colored dress that sat seated with a glass of wine resting casually in her right hand.   
“You don’t have children do you miss..?” She said as she took a sip from her glas.  
“Thessalia” the suspicious voice answered, it came from what appeared to be a woman dressed in a form fitting white dress “and no I do not, not anymore” she finished, she was leaning over the chair where what he guessed was a relatively young man was sitting. She didn’t have white hair like Beelzebub had said she usually had but they had implied that the demon was capable of changing her appearance so that she had long dark hair instead didn’t mean much, one odd thing out was that her lips were painted black, could be a make up choice of some sort but it didn’t really aesthetically fit in with the rest of her attire at all and it was something Beelzebub pointed out they had as a natural attribute most of the time. Furthermore, her dress was in fact fitting for what they were looking for, it had a high collar covering her throat. Gabriel also couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling of evil from the woman, could he really have found her already.

“I see” the brown hair woman said “if you don’t mind me asking I don’t believe I have heard that name ever before, where is it from?” She asked towards the woman dressed in white.  
“It’s Greek” the suspicious woman said. With narrowed eyes towards her, she seemed incredibly displeased. 

“Harriet darling” Thaddeus said walking up to the seated woman. “You’ll be happy to heart that We won’t be alone by our tabel any longer” he said “My I introduce Gabriel Angel to you my dear” he waved slightly towards Gabriel’s direction. “Gabe this is my wife, Harriet” he said with a broad smile.   
“Lovely to meet you” the woman who’s name apparently was Harriet said reaching her hand towards him.   
“It is” he said taking her hand in his in the customary ways of a human greeting.   
“okey” she said looking at him as if he said something odd, but she quickly changed subjects. “I hear your American like me and Thad” she said with a slight laugh “what are the odds” 

“It’s not to strange Mrs Dowling” the man that was seated in the chair that the suspicious woman was leaning on spoke up. “After all Lord Wildphrey has a lot of business overseas as well as here in the UK, that’s how he knows my father after all” he said. He then turned towards Gabriel, “Kalvin Wayland” he said sounding incredibly pleased with himself “you might in fact have heard of my father before, Edwin Wayland, he’s the CEO of the Atlantic Waylands shipping company”   
“Can’t say I have” Gabriel said, not really looking at the human man talking to him, not taking his eyes of the woman next to him. The human man must have noticed his staring because he continued to talk trying to get his attention   
“And this lovely creature is my date for the night Lana, say hello to Mr Angel, Lana” he said, that last part sounded almost like how a human would comand an animal to do a trick. Did this poor foolish human have any idea what kind of creature he was in fact keeping company with.

The woman that Wayland had referred to as Lana hadn’t been paying much attention to the conversation after they had stopped addressing her. As such she had not really taken a notice of Gabriel’s presence yet, But once she was addressed by name she looked up and meet eyes with him, a second of confusion, and then unmistakable look of absolute horror came over the woman’s face. He might not know her but she undoubtedly recognized him.   
“How...lovely” she said almost a bit shaky.  
“Indeed” Gabriel answered, walking a bit closer reaching his hand forward. If she was completely human she would have no qualms about taking it, if she was not. Well any amount of demonic attempts at hiding would be useless against the power of an Archangel. She knew this and just stared at his hand for a long time. 

“What’s the matter with you? Just shake his hand” Wayland said turning around a bit in his chair to look at them behind him.   
“I..” he could see a small bead of sweat running down her face “I’m …” her eyes weren’t not human, not really, often one could tell a demon by their eyes but sure they might be very blue but that’s not too strange, the fact that she didn’t appear to blink at all though was a bit more odd. “I’m.. sorry I need to go” she said and turned around quickly. Taking large but not exactly running steps away from him.   
“What...Lana?” Wayland stood up in his chair looking After the woman as she made her way through the crowd, he looked slightly towards Gabriel with a displeased look, before following after her.  
“Strange” Gabriel could hear Harriet say from her chair right behind him “was she someone you know mr Angel?” She asked him.  
“I need to be on my way” Gabriel said trying to find Beelzebub, he had found her, she was here and he could tell Beelzebub exactly how she was disguised and which way she was heading. Before the humans could continue to ask what he meant he stepped through space again, to anyone with a trained eye for the supernatural they might have seen him disappear, but most of the crowd around the table just thought that they must have looked away for a second and missed him leavening, people didn’t just disappear into nothing after all.

~

“It’s really quite a lovely little village, my Anathema is very interested in restoring the cottage she ended up in, she always been so taken with history, and now she’s brought it too so it’s probably for a fair bit longer that she plans to stay” Theresa Device was seated at a table full of quite honestly to rich people but she had come here of her own free will after all, so she shouldn’t complain.

she wasn’t really comfortable leaving Her little Anthy so soon again. Six months was a long time but her baby girl seemed very set on staying in England. She had missed her daughter a lot and the past week of seeing how she was doing had been marvelous, but she was so busy with her new projects. It was honestly wonderful to see her daughter so driven again, she had thought that fulfilling her destiny would have left her a bit aimless for the first time in her life but she wasn’t at all. 

So even though Theresa wanted to spend as much time as possible with Anathema she knew she had to give her some space, so she had gone back to London for the weekend perhaps to peruse some respectable flats that could be a good idea if Anathema really wasn’t going To move back to the states. She had also been given an invitation to this event through her old university friend Lucy who was just dying to spend some extra time with her now that she was in London. Which had brought her to the table where she was discussing why she had come to England in the first place.

“Ooh but say, is it only the historical house that keeps your daughter here? Has she maybe found a close friend that might have caught her interests in staying longer than her planed summer?” Mrs Carrington said with a giggle, no doubt had Lucy already told her a bit about the matter.  
“yes there is a boy involved as well, they seem very taken with each other I must admit” Theresa said taking a sip of her wine. There had always been the possibility that the two would develop feelings for one another, saving the world together would likely make you fond of a person very quickly. Of course Theresa hadn’t really ever considered it to much, it seemed very unlikely in her opinion with how she knew her daughter. Besides the Boy was an hereditary enemy to her not to mention a witch hunter of all things in this day and age. Theresa has expected a strange religious nut or someone with some unhealthy fixation of his ancestor that he would try to emulate. She had been very pleasantly surprised when she did actually meet him, finding him to be a quite sensitive mild mannered boy who apparently fell into the profession of witch hunter a bit accidentally. He was nice, considerate and most importantly obviously adored her daughter. All in all she couldn’t want for a better partner for her daughter then that.

She had just finished her glass of wine as mrs Carrington began to speak of her third daughters resent victory in dressage. Lucy was a dear and waved a server over to re fill her glas, But just as Mrs Carrington came to a dramatic point of her story Theresa’s attention was grabbed by something else. A servant had come over and was refilling her glas but there was something off, she felt the hairs on her neck stand up, looking at the arm belonging to the server she could see just above the white sleeve of their dress shirt, at the servers wrist a strange symbol was tattooed on their dark skin. Theresa looked up to see just what kind of person it could be to have something that was setting her so on edge like this tattooed on her skin.

It was a girl, very young, younger than her own daughter, black curly hair reaching her shoulders, and a round face. she looked quite harmless really, but there was something, her aura she realized, there was something incredibly strange with her aura. The young girl took notice of her staring at her.  
“Is something the matter madam?” She asked, her aura was almost the exact same as every other server in the hall, the color of someone slightly stressed, a bit anxious, but there was something more with her. Like a strange thin colored film dragged across a dark vat of water. Darkness yes there was some kind of off putting dark and cold part hidden within her. Theresa looked again to the girls hands where she was holding the wine bottle still, she could no longer she the girls wrist but on the flat side of her hand she could see another strange symbol that also made her feel off kilter just by looking at it.

“That tattoo, where? Where did you get that” she asked pointing towards the girls hand. She quickly and self consciously grabbed at her sleeve to cover most of her hand up.   
“I’m sorry madam, I don’t understand what it is you are talking about?” She said. Theresa looked at her face again and saw something she was surprised she could have possibly missed the first time. Her eye, she only had one eye, and the other...if the strange darkness was just slightly under the surface for most of her aura, there was a hole into it where the girls eye must have been once.

“Your eye...what happened to your eye?” Theresa asked, she was only cursory aware of the fact that she was being incredibly inappropriate. Her friends likely aghast at the way she was speaking to this girl but… what was this strange force within her and why was she here of all places? She looked scared Theresa realized, the girl had understood that Theresa had noticed something was off and that had frightened her.  
“I...I lost it to illness when I was young madam” she said, she looked like she wanted to runway at any moment now.  
“What kind of illness” what could possibly have planted itself within this girl to make her this way?  
“The hereditary kind” she said, the girl was gripping the bottle very tightly now, Theresa could almost see small cracks in green glass.

“What are you?” She couldn’t be human could she? Not fully, never in her life had Theresa seen this kind of aura.  
“I’m your server for the evening madam” she said and after that almost ran from the table.  
“Theresa dear what was that all about?” Lucy asked from the seat next to her.  
“There was something wrong with that girl Lucy” Theresa said still looking after her where she was making here way through the crowd. A tall man with dark hair and a beard then approached the girl, grabbing a hold of her arm and saying some quick words to her. From that distance Theresa could neither hear any of what was said or see the man’s aura clearly but something in her gut told her that his was likely just as strange as she was.

~

She was walking by as quickly as decorum would allow her to. An angel, a fucking  Archangel of all the things to appear, stuff was way to quickly going from bad to worse. Because no it wasn’t just that a god damned Archangel had somehow gotten inside without any of them noticing no, he was smelling of them, positively reeking of the lord of flies, which meant that they were here as well, they had likely come here together. The angel was likely running to them now to inform them where they could find her. She wasn’t going to get away, not without running to the others and that would be stupid as fuck, getting them caught was not going to buy her any favors from her lord. Things were going to fucking shit and Lamia was in the desperate need of a drink.

She finally came to one of the bars at the bottom floor of the event venue and as soon as she was close enough reached over the counter and pulled forth an unopened bottle of liquor used mainly in small amounts when creating drinks. She brought the top of the bottle to her mouth biting through the glass and spitting out the top with the cap still on it and began to pour the entirety of its contents down her throat. 

Her fangs were the first to come back as she gave up on looking attractive and instead took her more casual mortal appearance. She felt the bones in her shoulder snap as they became a bit broader, her face becoming thinner with her cheekbones more pronounced, her ample chest shrinking down Into a more manageable size. As well as her entire body going from enticingly curvy into someone that looked almost underfed. She was almost through the two thirds of the bottle when the bartender tried to get her to stop.

“Excuse me..eh ma’m you really shouldn’t…”  
“It’s a fucking open bar ain’t it?! Fuck off!” She almost yelled at him, her voice way less soft and feminine, sounding more hissing, it was well enough to frighten the man away as intended. Just as she was bringing the bottle back to her lips. someone stopped her by grabbing onto her upper arm with a hard grip.  
“What the hell do you think your doing?” Young Wayland said between gritted teeth, she almost rolled her eyes, of course he couldn’t catch a hint and just stay out of this shit. “You embarrassed me back there” 

“Oh really did I? And here you were doing such a great job at it yourself” she bit back sarcastically And brought the bottle back to her lips. It was then unceremoniously knocked out of her hand by Young Wayland.   
“You listen to me now you little whore” he said to here, calling her little really didn’t have any bite to it as she was a good 8 or so centimeters taller than him at that point. “My father may have already given you part of your payment but unless you behave and do as I tell you, you can forget ever seeing the rest of that money” he said, his grip on her arm tightening. If she had been a human it would likely have hurt but really it was just annoying at this point.

“I have no interest whatsoever in your petty human currency, now if you’d excuse me, I’m about to experience a lot of pain in a moment or two and I intend to dull my nervous system as much as possible before that happens” she said and wretched herself out of his gripp with little to no effort. Reaching behind the bar for another bottle. 

But young Wayland apparently had no sense whatsoever and grabbed her wrist before she could find one.  
“Who the hell do you think you are talking to, I…”   
“Unless you let go of me now and walk away, I promise you, the pain I shall inflict on you will be more than you’ve ever experienced before in your worthless little life” she interrupted him, her voice sending chills down any sensible humans spine. She never did make threats lightly, unfortunate for young Wayland he was to self absorbed to notice that the woman he had been spending the majority of the evening with didn't exactly look entirely human any more.

“How dare you speak to me in this way! My father will..” he was interrupted by her grabbing  ahold of his wrist, and crushing the bones within like they were nothing more then glas, she then delivered a kick to his knee, shattering it as well, and then she finished of by twisting his broken arm behind his back and pressing him face first into the hard wood of the bar.  
“By fucking heaven you’re so annoying” Lami said with a sigh. “you know it takes a very special type of insufferable to make no woman even wanna pretend to like you so you can throw your money at them.” The whole maneuver she had pulled had been over so quickly that the man didn’t even have time to scream in pain “I mean how pathetic aren’t you to have to go for your fathers sloppy seconds even when it comes to prostitutes, and don’t kid yourself, everyone here knows I'm being paid to spend time with you, as unbearable as you are it’s the only way any girl would ever willingly be in your presence” 

“Please… I’m s..s..sorry” he whimpered out, tears forming in his eyes, she must have broken his nose as well on impact when she slammed his face down she noticed, he was bleeding a lot.   
“Sad to say really but the world would be a lot better if without you in it” she said playing up a unnerving smile with a lot more fangs present then it had earlier. “Your mother doesn’t love you Kalvin, your father thinks your a disappointment, and an embarrassment, and all your siblings would be overjoyed if you were to die, means more money left for them once the old coot finally kicks the bucket”   
“P..please why are you doing this?” He asked trying but failing to get out of her hard grip.   
“I told you, I would inflict pain on you, so really this is all your own fault, you should have just walked away when I told you to” she said still smiling, her mouth appearing almost to wide then what was humanly possible. He was fully crying now, moments away from pissing himself in fear likely. “Oh but what’s the matter dear? Don’t you think I’m pretty?” She said exposing her impressive rows of sharp teeth and black gums before she opened her mouth and hissed showing her long forked black tongue, It was enough to make the foolish little man pass out in fear, collapsing to the ground as she let go of him. It was a tiny bit satisfying, after all having to put up with him all evening had been a bit of a trail.

She took another sigh, completely out of her alluring disguise now, she scratched a bit at her scalp before ripping the dark wig of her head placing it on the bar beside her. Revealing instead her short thin white hair that lay flat over her skull.   
“Nice dress, suits you well” she said over her shoulder towards the dark demonic power approaching through the crowd. The lord of the flies didn’t seem to care anymore that she could feel their presence by now. She turned around and saw them stand there, with their arms behind their back, and eyes glowing red. “Nice party right?” She said lifting a new bottle towards the prince in a toast.

“Lamia, you will tell me where he is” they stated, not really loudly but then again they didn’t need to do so in order to make her listen. None of the humans surrounding them was taking a notice[1], as was expected, no need to hid now after all. Which also meant they were only looking for her, great, absolutely fantastic, and while those thoughts might be intended in the sarcastic tone, some part of Lamia knew it was a bit preferable, better just her getting caught then all of them really.  
“I’m sorry to inform you that I can’t do that my Lord” she said, taking a swig out of her new bottle.  
“Do you truly think that any torture Asmodeus might be might inflict on you of holds a candle to what I’m capable of to get you to talk?” They said, all while taking slow steps towards her.   
“No sir, ain’t fear keeping me quiet” she said observing them over the top of the their bottle, for being so small they sure exuded a lot of power without even having to try much.

“Don’t make me laugh, as if he could inspire any kind of loyalty in you?” They asked.  
“It’s more of a principle really sir, don’t quite know how to describe it”  
“Principles? Didn’t know you were capable of having those?” They said.  
“Me neither, I’m just as surprised as you” she said setting the bottle down beside her on the bar. “But that is still the case, I really can’t tell you” she crossed her arms. This was going to hurt, a lot, and she was not looking forward to it. 

“I’m guessing these new found principles of yours prevent you from coming with me quietly as well then?” The demon lord asked. The humans had by then unconsciously made a quite wide circle[2] around the two demons.   
“I’m afraid so” Lamia said while giving her shoulders a slight shrug.  
“You do not honestly believe you could take me in A fight do you?” Beelzebub asked, while subtly taking a stance where they could at any moment spring into action.   
“Of course not” Lamia answered , “but I am quite adept at dodging I’m told so...I might hold out for longer then you’d first think” she said with a just slightly smug smile. Only half a second later she dived out of the way as Beelzebub’s fist made contact with the bar behind her breaking the wood into splinters.

—

[1] neither had they noticed the quite painful earlier display inflicted on young Wayland.

[2] none of the humans could really articulate why they did it, only that at that moment the area in question seemed to radiate an aura of discomforting suspense  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so things are going down, i do really intend to have the next chapter which is you know technically the second part of this chapter, but i'm incapable of keep things short at all,  
> so some fun facts, both [Yan-Gant-Y-Tan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan-gant-y-tan) and [Lamia](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f6/81/3c/f6813c6a6afa95a22d9c41ccf90ff215.jpg) are demons listed in the Dictionnaire Infernal (so are other demons that show up as well), though Lamia does have a [long mythology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamia) as a greek monster as well and showing up in a lot of different types of legends.
> 
> by the way if you read some of my other stuff you'll know i do this shit sometimes of describing like actual clothing because i'm a nerd for fashion so in case youd like to know what the dresses i describe (at least the ones for the demons) is base of then here there are
> 
>  
> 
> [Beelz's dress](https://66.media.tumblr.com/3a5bedce8d8a94addab6c7f2107c1b61/1ecf77ec343b346f-8f/s640x960/152f980cbe0b462e556ab119f92bb0957b872b5c.jpg)  
> [Yan-Gant-Y-Tan's dress](https://66.media.tumblr.com/0e8e41a29a33413e25ea544da1cbbba1/1ecf77ec343b346f-18/s540x810/ea913b83dc675ac9bd3609b8776e0b76ab8a6f7b.jpg)  
> [Lamia's dress](https://66.media.tumblr.com/82b1412cd4b3083cd4e316b6ac9ac18d/tumblr_prloz5WBhS1rp279uo4_1280.jpg)
> 
>  
> 
> (also i did mention that i was busy in the summer with cosplay an i actually cosplayed [Beelz](https://girlmadeofclockwork.tumblr.com/post/186627664272/all-other-words-i-have-for-you-are-worse-i) in the heat)


End file.
